Büşra Atalay, pregnant with 24-week-old twins, miscarried one baby and gave premature birth to the other after she was detained and interrogated on Thursday at Pendik Yüzyıl Hospital in Istanbul, Aktif Haber reported.
Despite her doctor’s objections, Atalay, who had been fired from her job over alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, was questioned by police over the allegation for several hours during which she started to bleed and eventually lost one of the twins. The surviving baby was delivered by caesarian section and immediately put in neonatal intensive care.
Atalay’s husband was also reportedly dismissed by a government decree issued during an ongoing state of emergency declared after a military coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016 that killed 249 people and wounded more than a thousand others. Immediately after the putsch the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Turkey’s Justice Ministry announced on July 13 that 50,510 people have been arrested and 169,013 have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup.
Turkey has suspended or dismissed more than 150,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants since July of last year.