Dr. Serdar Küni, is a physician and a human rights defender from Cizre who served as a referral physician for the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) Cizre Reference Center and as the President of Şırnak Medical Association. He was detained and arrested on October 19, 2016 following an accusation that he had medically treated “organization” members wounded, knowing that they were members to an organization, during the 2016 security forces operations in Cizre. He was tried for “aiding and abetting an organization knowingly and willingly”.
Journalist-author and human rights defender Nurcan Baysal has been arrested and under investigation; and her house was raided many times. As a consequence of publishing her temoignage of the military operations in Cizre, dating 2016, she was sentenced to a 10-month prison term in 2018. Her sentence was adjourned with her conditional release for 5 years. Most recently, an investigation was launched against him on the charge of ‘provoking the public to hatred and hostility’ for sharing letters from prison about the covid-19 outbreak.
Women performing the piece choreographed by Chilean feminist organization Las Tesis with Turkish lyrics to its song in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Antalya, protesting against sexual violence directed at women, were prevented, detained and prosecuted. Rights defenders and members of We Will Stop Femicide Platform (KCDP) Fidan Ataselim, Sevda Yeniköylü and Ayşen Ece Kavas were among the detained. Later a lawsuit also filed against them.
Diyarbakır Bar Association was founded in 1927. In parallel to the authoritarian tendencies of the period, the number of investigations and lawsuits against the bar association directors increase. They are targeted for their statements and the reports they draft. The former chair of the bar association Tahir Elçi was killed on November 28, 2015, during a press statement in front of the Sheikh Matar Mosque in Sur, Diyarbakır. There is a ongoing lawsuit against the Bar Association.
The former president of the Türk Tabipleri Birliği (TTB- Turkish Medical Association) Central Council Prof. Dr. Raşit Tükel, and 10 colleagues who are also members of the Council, were accused of and tried for "Provoking the Public to Hatred, Hostility or Degrading", and were sentenced to 1 year and 8 months of imprisonment on May 3, 2019. The indictment was based on a TTB statement regarding the “Olive Branch” military operation to Afrin, which read “War is a public health problem” and another World Peace Day statement dating September 1, 2016.
Bülent Şık, a food engineer and an environment and human rights activist, was accused of "Disclosure of Confidential Information in Respect of a Duty" and was sentenced to a year and 3 months imprisonment.
Şık received his PhD on environment-friendly food analysis techniques, and between the years 1990-2009, he worked in various laboratories of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock. In 2009, he left his post to work for Akdeniz University as a lecturer.
Tahir Elçi was the chair of the Diyarbakır Bar Association when he was killed on November 28, 2015, during a press statement in front of the Sheikh Matar Mosque in Sur, Diyarbakır. He was also a member of the Human Rights Association, Advisory Board to the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB) Human Rights Center, and Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV). The assailants of and the arm used for his murder are still unknown.
On trial Middle East Technical University LGBTI+ Solidarity, since its foundation in 1996, has been promoting gender equality and fighting against LGBTI+phobia.
Saturday Mothers/People came together for the first time on May 27, 1995. For the past 26 years, they are leading a struggle demanding to know the whereabouts of the enforced disappearances under custody, to put perpetrators on trial and stopping enforced disappearances.
The inauguration of the airport took place on the planned date of October 29, 2018, on the 96th anniversary of the foundation of the Republic of Turkey. 61 workers and unionists protesting against the unacceptable working conditions at the construction site of the airport have been on trial since September 2018.