Fethullah Gulen

The ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP and its junior partner, the Nationalist Movement Party, MHP, introduced a new bill to the Turkish Parliament on Tuesday aimed at releasing 90,000 prisoners.

The bill, which will be voted upon by MPs soon, will increase probation time and decrease sentences. 

An associate of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen has warned of the fate awaiting Turks extradited from the Balkans at the request of Ankara as it pursues revenge for a failed 2016 coup.

Turkish prosecutors have ordered the arrest of nearly 700 people, including military and justice ministry personnel, state media said, intensifying moves against a network accused of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt.

The arrests came amidst rumours of yet another coup attempt against Erdogan which was denied by the government.

The General Prosecutor of Moldova, Alexandr Stoianoglu, on Wednesday said charges against the former head of the intelligence service, SIS, Vasile Botnari, had been sent to court for the involuntary deportation in 2018 of seven Turkish teachers to Turkey, where they were jailed for alleged links to exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Albania has denied that the Turkish state intelligence agency, the MIT, was involved in the extradition on January 1 of an alleged supporter of the exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Teacher Harun Celik was arrested in Albania in July 2019 while apparently trying to travel from Kazakhstan to Canada via Tirana on fake documents.

A Romanian judge has blocked the extradition to Turkey of a Turkish schools director linked to the man accused by Ankara of orchestrating a failed 2016 coup, hours after the director was arrested on Tuesday.

A Romanian judge on Wednesday rejected a Turkish request for the country to extradite a 24-year-old teacher arrested by police and sought by the authorities in Ankara.

Busra Zeynep Zen, an English teacher affiliated to the movement of the exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, appeared before the appeal court judge soon after her detention.

More than 120 journalists have been held in Turkish prisons, a world record, and the media situation in the country has not improved since last year, when the state of emergency was lifted. This was reported by the International Press Institute, quoted by British media.

Erdogan reportedly believes they are followers of exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, whose movement the Turkish government blames for the failed coup in the country in 2016 and describes as a 'terrorist group'.

Since the failed coup, the Turkish authorities have detained thousands of suspected 'Gulenists' and put pressure on governments abroad to extradite suspects.

The moment when Turkey received the Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile system, designed primarily to shoot down NATO planes, carries immense geopolitical significance, and as such it deserves closer inspection. Careful examination reveals a number of moves intended to send a message.