Turkish Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç has revealed the details of an ongoing crackdown on followers of the faith-based Gülen movement since a failed coup in July 2016, saying that a total of 705,172 people have been investigated thus far on terrorism or coup-related charges due to their alleged links to the movement, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The Gülen movement, inspired by Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, is accused by the Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of masterminding the failed coup on July 15, 2016 and is labeled a “terrorist organization,” although the movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
As the eighth anniversary of the coup attempt approaches, the minister provided some figures on Gülen-linked investigations and prosecutions that still continue unabated despite multiple rulings from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in favor of the Gülen followers who were put in pre-trial detention or convicted on terrorism charges following the coup attempt.
Tunç said there are currently 13,251 people in prison who are in pre-trial detention or convicted of terrorism in Gülen-linked trials.
Tens of thousands of people who were arrested in the post-coup crackdown and convicted of terrorism have been released from prison over the years after serving their sentences.
Those people were convicted of terrorism simply because of actions such as using a mobile phone application known as ByLock; membership in a labor union and an association affiliated with the Gülen movement; and having an account at the now-closed Bank Asya, sending their children to Gülen-linked schools or having subscriptions to Gülen-linked publications, which are all considered signs of membership in the Gülen movement and criminal evidence.
According to ECtHR rulings, the use of ByLock, once widely available online and considered a secret tool of communication among supporters of the Gülen movement, does not constitute a reliable piece of evidence or a criminal offense.
The minister said 289 trials in which defendants were actively involved in the coup attempt have been concluded so far and that the convictions have been upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeals in 206 of them.
He said a total of 4,891 people have been convicted in these trials, with 1,634 of them receiving aggravated life sentences, 1,366 sentenced to life in prison and 1,891 of them receiving sentences of various lengths on coup-related charges.
Courts acquitted 2,870 of the defendants in these trials while deciding not to hand down any sentences to 964 of them, according to Tunç.
The coup attempt, which was suppressed overnight, led to the death 253 people and the injury of 2,190 others, the minister said.
Purges
With regard to judges and prosecutors who have been dismissed from their jobs due to their alleged affiliation with the Gülen movement, the minister said 4,006 prosecutors and judges have been fired from their jobs due to their alleged Gülen links since the coup attempt.
Following the abortive putsch, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and carried out a massive purge of state institutions under the pretext of an anti-coup fight. More than 130,000 public servants as well as 24,706 members of the armed forces were summarily removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by emergency decree-laws subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny.
Extradition requests
The minister also talked about Turkey’s extradition requests from the US for Gülen, saying that the country has filed seven such requests on 27 charges, mainly charges related to the July 15 coup attempt.
He said Turkey has fully met the US requests for details of the charges against Gülen and that he can proudly say the files are very detailed and complete.
The minister said although Turkey’s extradition requests meet the necessary criteria for an extradition to take place from the US to Turkey, the US Justice Department is keeping the file on hold.
“Unfortunately, there has not been any movement [in Gülen’s extradition] for eight years,” said the minister.
Turkey has sent multiple extradition requests to the US government while pursuing a worldwide crackdown on followers of Gülen following the coup attempt. US officials have expressed on several occasions that although Turkey presented them with a large quantity of information about Gülen, the files didn’t include sufficiently clear evidence of his involvement in the abortive putsch.
Regarding Turkey’s extradition requests for the other Gülen followers overseas, Tunç said 1,774 extradition requests have been made to 115 countries and that 132 Gülen followers have either been deported or extradited to Turkey thus far. A total of 427 of Turkey’s extradition requests for Gülen followers have been rejected.
Tunç also criticized the US and European countries, mainly Germany, for remaining “indifferent” to Turkey’s extradition requests.
“They continue to keep terrorists in their own countries. We regret to have to say this,” said Tunç.
Thousands of Gülen followers who had to flee Turkey to avoid the massive crackdown on real and perceived Gülen followers in the aftermath of the coup attempt have been granted asylum in Western countries that do not recognize the Gülen movement as a terrorist organization and allow their activities within their borders.