How to Target a Family? Turkey’s Crackdown Shows It.

The tragedy of Ozcerit family reveals the obsession of Turkish authorities with certain segments of society. They simply target for no reason at all. Sometimes just for intimidation.

Ahmet Ozcerit with his family at a hospital.

Barely a year after his academic father passed away, Sinan Ozcerit, a college student in Ankara, informed his followers on Twitter on Tuesday: police detained her mother, Esra Ozcerit, and her sister, Senanur Ozcerit (19). Already reeling from the loss of father, academic Ahmet Turan Ozcerit who last year died of cancer soon after authorities allowed his release from prison when it was too late, the family plunged into a new ordeal.

The reason provided by the Turkish police might normally have been bewildering. But it is not, given that Turkey has already rendered the feeling of shock and surprise redundant.

Senanur, a freshman at a university in the western province of Sakarya, invited her friends to fast-breaking (iftar) Ramadan dinner. But she had no idea that her innocent and pious act — every Muslim invites others for iftar dinner — would land her in police custody with serious charges of terrorist organization membership. Absurd though it may sound, this has become a normal pattern in Turkey where…