The Turkish government has refused to provide aid to a woman whose apartment was hit by a strong earthquake on Jan. 24 due to her husband’s incarceration over alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, an opposition deputy revealed on Saturday.
Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu tweeted that Ümmü Gülsüm Tamam, a resident of Elazığ province’s Sivrice district, the center of a 6.8 magnitude earthquake that struck in January, was denied help during a phone call with a ministry official.
He said Tamam was also not given poverty assistance despite the fact that she was officially entitled to it prior to the earthquake for the same reason.
According to a pro-government media report, her husband, Eyüp Tamam, who had worked as a teacher, was jailed due to alleged ties to the Gülen movement, which is accused of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt despite its strong denial of any involvement.
On the pretext of an anti-coup fight, more than 130,000 people were removed from state jobs while in excess of 30,000 others are still in jail and some 600,000 people have been investigated on allegations of terrorism.