sümeyra avcı
An inflatable boat carrying 16 people, affiliated with the Gülen movement, en route to Greek Island of Lesbos capsized in northwestern Turkey on Sunday and 6 people including 3 babies drowned, 1 person has been missing and 9 people were rescued as they were trying to escape from the persecution of Turkish government led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
According to a report by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency, the boat were carrying 14 people and 2 traffickers. It was reported 6 of them, including 3 babies drowned, 1 of them (Rümeysa Çoban – 17) is missing, 9 of them were rescued in Aegean Sea.Six people including three babies were drowned after the boat sank off Çıplak Island of Ayvalık district of Balıkesir province, said Gökhan Görgülüarslan, the district governor. Nine others were rescued by coastguards officials and one person is missing, added Görgülüarslan.Three babies who drowned in Aegean Sea identified as Y.B. Aksoy, Burhan Yeni, Nurhayat Yeni, and two women drowned identified as Sümeyye Avcı, Sena Aksoy, and a man identified as Gürkan Yeni. It was also reported that among the rescued people there are teachers, doctors and shopkeepers.
Thousands of people have fled Turkey due to a massive post-coup witch-hunt carried out by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government against sympathizers of the Gülen movement in the wake of a controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016. Many have tried to flee Turkey via illegal means as the government had cancelled the passports of thousands of people.Hundreds of thousands of people in Turkey have been the subject of legal proceedings in the last two years on charges of membership in the Gülen movement since the coup attempt in July 2016, a Turkish Justice Ministry official told a symposium on July 19, 2018.“Legal proceedings have been carried out against 445,000 members of this organisation,” Turkey’s pro-government Islamist news agency İLKHA quoted Turkish Justice Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Ömer Faruk Aydıner as saying.
Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that killed 249 people. 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 has suspended or dismissed more than 150,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants since July 15. On December 13, 2017 the Justice Ministry announced that 169,013 people have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup.
Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu announced on April 18, 2018 that the Turkish government had jailed 77,081 people between July 15, 2016 and April 11, 2018 over alleged links to the Gülen movement.
