Onur Selim Y., a 20-year-old university student living and studying in the northeastern Turkish province of Erzurum, has died by hanging himself from a pipe, the Stockholm Center for Freedom reported.
The report said his father, a biology teacher identified only by the initials T.Y., spent 11 months in pretrial detention and has been sentenced to more than six years in prison on charges of links to the Gülen movement, a faith-based group accused by the government of “terrorist” activities.
T.Y. was convicted of terrorism for finding housing for a student 33 years ago, in 1991.
His mother was dismissed from her job with the education ministry on similar grounds over her labor union membership, the report said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, which implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan, his family members and his inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began to target its members. He intensified the crackdown on the movement following an abortive putsch in 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. Gülen and the movement strongly deny involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
In addition to the thousands who were jailed, scores of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.