ClimateWatch
Turkey’s “Purge”

The recent attempted coup by a faction within Turkey’s military has left the country in the throes of uncertainty, further increasing citizens’ and human rights watchdogs’ already pronounced concerns about the future of civil liberties in Turkey. Ground zero for the attempted overthrow of the government were Ankara and Istanbul, home to journalists overrun on the air by military forces and ordinary citizens called into the streets by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan via FaceTime.

Daylight illuminated the deaths of nearly 300, the wounds of the 1,400 injured, and the beginning of a so-called “purge” that has further endangered groups already vulnerable under Erdogan’s regime: political critics, journalists, and intellectuals. Women, too, found themselves targeted amidst the instability, and Turkish Kurds worry that the aftermath will further heighten anti-Kurd sentiment.

But the coup attempt and retaliation are only the latest in Turkey’s security woes. Terrorist attacks in Istanbul and Ankara, conflict with Kurdish militants and pro-Kurd advocates, ongoing intimidation and blackouts of journalists and political dissidents, and a regional refugee crisis have upended the tenuous stability in the country secured through a 2013 ceasefire with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). While the restoration of Erdogan’s government was seen as a victory for democracy, Turks and observers alike fear what measures Erdogan, already intolerant of dissent, will take in its wake.

Here is a look at coverage of the destabilizing security situation for at-risk communities in Turkey:

Background

• “Turkey coup attempt: How a night of death and mayhem unfolded” (CNN)
• “Conspiracy, paranoia, and real plots: the bizarre history of Turkey’s military coups” (Vox)
• “Erdoğan v the Gülenists: from political allies to Turkey’s bitter rivals” (The Guardian)
• “Erdogan’s Final Agenda” (The Atlantic)
• Turkey on Outlas

Critics, Journalists & Academics

• “The Purge Begins in Turkey” (The New Yorker)
• “Turkey Detains Thousands in Military in Bid to Regain Control” (The New York Times)
• “In Turkey, one journalist killed, several newsrooms seized in attempted coup” (Committee to Protect Journalists)
• “Erdogan defies EU on death penalty: ‘If Turkey’s parliament backs it, I will’” (euronews)
• “Turkey’s Higher Education Board suspends four rectors” (Hürriyet News Daily)
• “Turkey: Work travel ban on academics after failed coup” (Al Jazeera)
• “Turkey coup attempt: Charges laid against 99 generals and admirals” (BBC)
• “British teachers caught up in Turkey crackdown as Erdogan bans academics from leaving country and orders those overseas to return” (The Telegraph)

Women

• “Women are being silenced in Turkey’s crackdown” (Public Radio International)
• “‘Turkey has changed’: Women on the failed coup” (BBC)

• “Meet the women in the spotlight during resistance to Turkey’s failed coup” (Hürriyet Daily News)
  

Kurds

• “Turkey’s Kurdish Leader Hopes Failed Coup Will Make Erdogan See His Opponents Differently” (BuzzFeed News)
• “Practical Politics Upstages Ethnicity as Kurdish Leader Backs Turkey’s Erdogan” (Voice of America)
• “Turkey’s battle with PKK continues through coup drama” (Middle East Online)

Foreigners

• “What Travelers Need to Know About Turkey” (The New York Times)

(Image Credit: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images, via Vox)