Turkey witnessed another tragic purge victim story this week as 31-year-old teacher Habibe Çınar died of cancer on Thursday after dismissal from her job in the wake of a July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey.
TR724 reported her story on Thursday after a series of tweets about the teacher went viral on social media.
Çınar, who was a mother of two children aged 1 and 5, was one of the victims of Turkey’s massive purge due to her links to faith-based Gülen movement. The government holds the movement responsible for the July 15, 2016 coup attempt and is pursuing a wide-ranging persecution of real and imagined members of the movement.
As part of the purge, Çınar’s husband, who is also a teacher, has been jailed for the last eight months and was unable to go to the hospital when her condition worsened.
Habibe Çınar herself had also been briefly detained in the wake of the failed coup.
Tens of thousands of schoolteachers have been purged or jailed due to “terrorist” links or coup charges in Turkey since 2016.
Over 150,000 people have been sacked from their jobs for alleged links to the abortive putsch.
Due to profiling in their social security records, teachers and fired civil servants in general are not able to find jobs even in the private sector given the high level of stigma attached to Gülen movement sympathizers in the country.