Press Statement

It is a typically cold day in January 2017. Nagihan Gökçek, a mother of five, drives to Sincan prison in Ankara to visit her husband, Abdullah. When she enters the prison, she is detained, and her children are left alone in the car for hours. A video shows one of her children opening the car door in the prison parking lot, showing his brothers crying inside. In tears, he says, “We are five brothers, left alone. We have a disabled brother. I commend those people to God’s punishment.” One of her children has Down syndrome. Later that day a relative picks up the children from the cold car in the prison parking lot.

By the end of August 2017, six hundred sixty-eight (668) children under the age of six are in jails across Turkey with their mothers, detained or arrested as part of the government crackdown on the Hizmet Movement. One hundred forty-nine (149) of these children are infants under a year old.

As we look at Turkey and the Turkish communities around the world today, we’re confronted with an uncomfortable but undeniable truth: Thousands of children’s lives are currently shattered for no other reason than the family or the circumstances into which they were born.

As this release shows, unless the relentless assault on dissent in the country and abroad is not stopped immediately, the future of hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged and vulnerable children– and therefore the future of the society-- will be imperilled. This discrimination and violence against communities and families means these children will not have the opportunity for an education nor the chance to earn a decent living and positively contribute to their respective communities.

The unlawful constraints confronting these children are neither technical nor a matter of resources. They are a matter of political commitment, and the Turkey’s government crackdown on dissent. It is imperative to join forces and make it a priority to end discrimination and ensure that hundreds of thousands of children are not left behind.

Children have the right to a standard of living that is good enough to meet their physical and mental needs. Governments should help families and guardians who cannot afford to provide this, especially regarding food, clothing, and housing.

We are particularly concerned about the situation of the 668 children under the age of 7, who according to the Justice Ministry (August 2017), are being held in Turkish prisons along with their mothers. We estimate149 of these children in prison are under 1 year old; 140 are 1 year old; 124 are 2 years old; 117 children, 3 years old; 77 children, 4 years old; 44 children, 5 years old; and 6 children, 6 years old, the ages of the remaining 11 being unknown. According to the Ministry of Justice, 344 of the children imprisoned along with their mothers are boys and 324 are girls.

Today, 28 of the October and we will do anything we can to stop this crime and witch hunt and we would like to create a world with love, peace and full of life for our children.



Thank you for your support.