Turkish prosecutors have found that a doctor who was removed from his
job at a public hospital in İzmir in 2017 due to alleged links to the
Gülen movement and subsequently committed suicide did not actually use
the ByLock mobile phone application, which is considered to be the top
communication tool among Gülen followers according to Turkish
authorities, the Evrensel daily reported on Thursday.
Shortly after he was fired from his job at the İzmir-based Katip
Çelebi University Hospital in February 2017 as part of an ongoing
crackdown on followers of the Gülen movement, Dr. Hasan Orhan Çetin
committed suicide by jumping from the 10th floor of the hospital.
Çetin, 30, was an assistant in the biochemistry department of Katip
Çelebi University Atatürk Teaching and Research Hospital. Çetin
sustained critical injuries in the fall and could not be saved despite
doctors’ efforts.
In an investigation into Çetin, the İzmir Chief Prosecutor’s Office
recently decided on non-prosecution of the late doctor because it was
found out that Çetin did not use ByLock, Evrensel said.
The İzmir branch of SES, a labor union representing healthcare
workers, has issued a statement regarding Çetin’s ordeal and said an
investigation on suspicion of causing death should be launched into the
Turkish authorities who removed him from his job.
Dozens of people have committed suicide either after they were
imprisoned over ties to the movement or after being linked to the
movement outside prison. Some of these suicides have been found to be
suspicious. Suspicious deaths have taken place in prison and also beyond
the prison walls amid psychological pressure and threats of imminent
imprisonment and torture, sometimes following the release of suspects or
just before their detention. SCF has compiled 110 cases of suspicious deaths and suicides in Turkey in a list in a searchable database format.
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 autocratic
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 other civil servants since July 2016. Turkey’s interior
minister announced on December 12, 2017 that 55,665 people have been
arrested. On December 13, the Justice Ministry announced that 169,013
people have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since
the failed coup.
A total of 48,305 people were arrested by courts across Turkey in
2017 over their alleged links to the Gülen movement, Interior Minister
Süleyman Soylu said on Dec. 2, 2017. “The number of detentions is nearly
three times higher,” Soylu told a security meeting in İstanbul and
claimed that “even these figures are not enough to reveal the
severity of the issue.” (SCF with turkishminute.com)
