ESSAY: PERSECUTION AND POLITICS

Will Turkey’s Political Terror Ever End? The Nightmare of Purge Victims Lingers

First, they lost their jobs, then their freedom. Some were released after doing time. Just when they thought they were finally left alone, a new crackdown reared its head. Again.

In sweeping police raids across the country, Turkish law enforcement apprehended 459 people in 66 cities. In a gleeful tweet on his official Twitter account, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya showered praise on the security forces for capturing so many figures allegedly affiliated with the outlawed movement of now-deceased cleric Fethullah Gulen, who passed away in Pennsylvania, U.S., last month.

“There is no room for any slackening in our fight against this treacherous terrorist organization after the death of the FETO leader! We will fight until we cleanse this treacherous structure that attempted to stage a coup against our national will,” the minister gloated in a show of resolve and renewed gusto.

Although more than eight years passed since a controversial coup that rattled Turkish politics and society in July 2016, the government has never relented its bulldog grip on the victims of…