#gulenist

[mariacallous]

Human Rights Watch, HRW said in its latest report, ‘‘We Will Find You’: A Global Look at How Governments Repress Nationals Abroad’, that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government is one of the leading states involved in targeting and pursuing critics outside the country.

“Governments across the globe are reaching beyond their borders and committing human rights abuses against their own nationals or former nationals to silence or deter dissent,” the HRW report said.

The report said that the Turkish government has openly stated that it is pursuing government critics abroad, particularly those who are allegedly linked to US-based Muslin preacher Fethullah Gulen, accused of masterminding a coup attempt in 2016 against Erdogan’s government.

Since then, the Ankara government has been calling Gulen’s network the “Fethullahist Terrorist Organisation” or “FETO”. Gulen denies any involvement in the failed coup attempt.

HRW gave the example of Turkish national Selahaddin Gulen, nephew of Fethullah Gulen, saying that he “went missing in May 2021 while travelling to Kenya to marry his fiancé, a Kenyan national”.

“Despite being a registered asylum-seeker in Kenya, he was under a deportation order from the Kenyan authorities, based on an Interpol Red Notice from Türkiye, which required him to report weekly to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters in Nairobi. On one of these visits, he vanished. Photographs were released several weeks later of him in handcuffs in Ankara,” HRW explained.

In November 2022, Turkey’s then vice-president Fuat Oktay said that more than 100 alleged Gulenists have brought to Turkey.

“The [Turkish Intelligence Agency] … ensured the extradition of more than 100 FETO terrorists from various countries to our country,” Oktay told parliament.

Erdogan’s government has strongly urged Balkan states to hand over alleged Gulenists and to close down any institution related to the Muslim cleric’s movement.

Most have resisted the Erdogan government’s call for extraditions, but the Turkish intelligence agency has been involved in several controversial operations to send back Gulenist suspects from Kosovo, Albania and Moldova, which sparked political rows in countries.

According to HRW, methods used by various countries to target their citizens abroad include killings, abductions, unlawful removals, abuse of consular services, the targeting and collective punishment of relatives, and digital attacks.

HRW called on countries that host government critics from other states to protect them.

“Governments should identify transnational repression as a specific threat to human rights, offer protection for victims, and take steps to ensure they are not complicit,” HRW said.

The report includes over 75 cases previously documented by Human Rights Watch, involving over two dozen governments including Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates.

[irvinenewshq]

Finnish delegation to go to Türkiye for NATO talks subsequent week

Finnish officers are anticipated to go to Türkiye subsequent Tuesday to maintain technical discussions with Turkish counterparts on Ankara’s extradition requests of needed terrorists as a part of a just lately reached settlement on the sidelines of the previous’s NATO membership, Development experiences citing Every day Sabah. Finnish Justice Ministry officers will meet within the capital Ankara with a delegation headed by Kasım Cicek, the director common of overseas relations and the European Union on the Turkish Justice Ministry. In the course of the assembly, Turkish officers will reiterate their request to the Finnish delegation to extradite members of two terrorist teams, the PKK and the Gulenist Terror Group (FETO), the latter the group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Türkiye. Proof of the accused terrorists’ crimes will even be specified by paperwork. Finland and Sweden formally utilized to hitch NATO in June. Nevertheless, Türkiye, a NATO member for over 70 years, voiced objections to the membership bids, criticizing the 2 nations for tolerating and even supporting terrorist teams. The three nations signed a trilateral memorandum of understanding at NATO’s June summit in Madrid, which stipulates that Finland and Sweden is not going to present assist to the YPG/PYD-the PKK terrorist group’s Syrian offshoot-or FETO. The PKK is listed as a terrorist group by Türkiye, the European Union, and the U.S., and is liable for the deaths of 40,000 folks, together with girls, youngsters, and infants. The YPG-which additionally has a presence in Europe, brazenly sanctioned by a number of governments-is the terrorist PKK’s Syrian department. The Nordic nations additionally agreed to handle Ankara’s pending deportation or extradition requests for terror suspects. Türkiye’s parliament should ratify the nation’s approval for Finland and Sweden’s membership for them to hitch NATO. Originally published at Irvine News HQ

[timesofocean]

Erdogan says Ankara not supportive of Finland, Sweden joining NATO

New Post has been published on https://www.timesofocean.com/erdogan-says-ankara-not-supportive-of-finland-sweden-joining-nato/

Erdogan says Ankara not supportive of Finland, Sweden joining NATO

Ankara (The Times Groupe)- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that NATO-member Turkey could not support plans by Sweden and Finland to join the pact as the Nordic countries were “home to many terrorist organizations”.

Even though Turkey has officially supported NATO expansion since it joined the U.S.-led alliance 70 years ago, its opposition could pose a problem for Sweden and Finland given that new members must be agreed to unanimously.

Throughout its history, Turkey has repeatedly criticized Sweden and other Western European countries for their handling of groups deemed terrorist by Ankara, including the Kurdish militant groups PKK and YPG, and followers of U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen. Turkey says the Gulenists attempted a coup in 2016. Gulen and his supporters deny the allegations.

By applying for NATO membership, Finland and Sweden are expected to expand the Western military alliance that Putin aimed to prevent with his invasion of Ukraine.

Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul that he was following developments surrounding Finland and Sweden, but he did not hold positive views on the issue. He said that Greece’s membership in NATO had been a mistake in the past.

“We do not want to repeat similar mistakes as a country, nor are Scandinavian countries guesthouses for terrorist groups,” Erdogan said without elaborating.

“Some of them are even in parliaments in some countries. We cannot support them,” he said.

As a response to Turkish resistance, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto called for patience and a step-by-step approach. In addition, he said he would meet his Turkish counterpart on Saturday in Berlin.

Meanwhile, Sweden remains confident it will be able to secure unanimous approval for any NATO application it submits.

Earlier, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg had stated that the Finns would be “warmly welcomed” and promised a “smooth and swift” accession process.

Aaron Stein, director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, tweeted on Twitter about the Turkish opposition: “Turkish national security elites view Finland and Sweden as semi-hostile, given the presence of PKK and Gulenists. It’s gonna take a lot of arm twisting to get approval.”

NATO states that it is open to any country that is capable of furthering the principles of the North Atlantic Treaty and contributing to North Atlantic security”.

In addition to attending many NATO meetings, receiving regular updates on the situation in Ukraine and participating in regular military drills, Finland and Sweden already have interoperable military equipment with NATO allies.

However, they cannot take advantage of NATO’s collective defence clause – that an attack on one ally is an attack on all – until they join.

On Thursday, Moscow called Finland’s announcement hostile and threatened retaliation, including unspecified “military-technical” measures.

Although Turkey has criticized Russia’s invasion, sent armed drones to Ukraine, and tried to facilitate peace talks between the sides, it has not backed Western sanctions against Moscow, and seeks to maintain close economic, energy, and tourism ties with Russia.

[zvaigzdelasas]

22 Sep 22

[collapsedsquid]

I saw an AEI piece claiming that one of Turkey’s demands to let Sweden and Finland join NATO is that the US extradite Gulen, I can’t find anyone else claiming it but I am curious (I have seen multiple sources say they are demanding that Finland and Sweden extradite some Gulenists but only that source that claims Gulen himself)

[isoltsayre]

“They don’t allow journalists from foreign countries to come [to Azerbaijan], unless they’re from Turkey. In a few cases they’ve made exceptions, but mostly they’re not allowed. Armenia on the other hand, and Artsakh, are open to any journalist that wants to go. There is a huge comparison here that nobody is even talking about. Armenia is a modern progressive democracy, especially since 2018’s peaceful Velvet Revolution. Then you have Azerbaijan and Turkey that are putting their people, their journalists in jail. Turkey is killing the Kurds, and putting Gulenists in jail. Azerbaijan has journalists and opposition in jail. There are protests by the opposition in Azerbaijan today during the war. “Where is my son? You’re not reporting anything! We know you’re lying to us!” These guys [Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] are corrupt thugs, stealing from their people and they’re gonna get theirs. But in the meanwhile, we don’t want to be sacrificed.”

[emrecelikrumi]

When paranoia sinks in.. #Rocky 'rises up' as latest #Gulenist threat to #Turkey @MiddleEastEye

http://dlvr.it/PxlvZn : from my twitter bit.ly/ECtweet

[stocknewspaper-blog]

"Turkey asks Germany to extradite coup suspect: foreign minister" has been added to my site. Please visit for details. http://www.stocknewspaper.com/turkey-asks-germany-to-extradite-coup-suspect-foreign-minister/

[zoranphoto]

CRNA LISTA ‘TURSKOG SULTANA’! ‘Svi koje poznajem su ili mrtvi ili u zatvoru’: Hapsio bi učiteljice u Švedskoj i aktiviste u Srbiji?

NATO je službeno pokrenuo proces ulaska Švedske i Finske u svoj vojni savez. Ali ključni uvjet za članicu NATO-a, Tursku, je predaja više od 70 ljudi koje je njezin predsjednik opisao kao teroriste. Čelnici dviju nordijskih nacija kažu da ovo pitanje shvaćaju ozbiljno, ali izručenje u konačnici ovisi o sudovima, a ne o političarima. Pa koga Turska želi i bi li oni ikada bili deportirani u Ankaru?

Turski zahtjevi

Švedska i Finska podnijele su zahtjev za pridruživanje obrambenom savezu Zapada nakon što je Rusija pokrenula svoj rat u Ukrajini. Turska je bila jedina od 30 država članica NATO-a koja je blokirala njihove napore sve dok dvije nordijske države nisu pristale na niz zahtjeva – uključujući izručenje osoba koje su navodno povezane s terorizmom. Prema memorandumu potpisanom na summitu NATO-a prošlog tjedna, Finska i Švedska složile su se ekspeditivno i temeljito pozabaviti turskim “neriješenim zahtjevima za deportaciju ili izručenje osumnjičenika za terorizam”, uz “bilateralne zakonske okvire za olakšavanje izručenja”. Predsjednik Recep Tayyip Erdogan rekao je da je Švedska obećala izručenje 73 “terorista” i da je već poslala njih tri ili četiri. Provladin turski dnevnik Hurriyet objavio je popis od 45 osoba, uključujući 33 tražene iz Švedske i 12 iz Finske.    

Traži ih Turska

Turska je posebno zainteresirana za predaju pojedinaca koje smatra povezanima s Kurdistanskom radničkom strankom (PKK), koju EU, SAD i UK smatraju terorističkom skupinom. Također je za petama sljedbenicima prognanog turskog svećenika Fethullaha Gulena. Guleniste Turska okrivljuje za neuspjeli puč protiv predsjednika Erdogana 2016. godine. BBC je razgovarao s tri osobe koje traži Turska.

Bulent Kenes: Novinar

Godinama je bio glavni urednik ‘Today’s Zaman’, velikog dnevnog lista na engleskom jeziku u Turskoj, prije nego što je ugašen 2016. Sada živi u egzilu u Stockholmu. Turske vlasti ga optužuju da je dio Gulenovog pokreta ili kako ih zovu Fethullahova teroristička organizacija (Feto). Poznata je po svojoj mreži škola i ne smatra se terorističkom skupinom u EU, Velikoj Britaniji ili SAD-u. Kenes je rekao da je postao meta zbog svojih otvorenih kritika predsjednika Erdogana i da se suočio s optužbama da je planirao srušiti vladu: “Sve su optužbe izmišljene. Ja sam neovisni novinar bez veze s bilo kojom organizacijom.” Dobio je uvjetnu zatvorsku kaznu 2015. zbog “vrijeđanja predsjednika”, u tweetu u kojem je pisalo da bi ga se Erdoganova pokojna majka sramila. Uvreda predsjednika Erdogana i danas je uobičajena optužba, a 17 novinara i karikaturista izvedeno je pred sud u prva tri mjeseca 2022., prema neovisnoj turskoj organizaciji Bianet. Bulent Kenes vjeruje da je postao adut u pregovaranju između Erdogana i Švedske u pregovorima s NATO-om. Ne boji se osobito izručenja jer bi to bila “izdaja švedskih vlastitih vrijednosti” demokracije i zaštite disidenata. “Ovo nije test za Erdoganov režim… ovo je test za švedske vlasti”, rekao je. Turska ga optužuje da je član militantnog PKK-a, koji poziva na veću kurdsku samoupravu i uključen je u oružanu borbu s turskom državom.

Fatih: ‘Reformirani piroman’

Ostali na turskom popisu daleko su manje istaknuti. Fatih, pripadnik Kurda iz Finske, bilo je dio grupe od pet mladića koji su 2008. godine zapalili vrata turske ambasade. Sada 37-godišnji vlasnik tvrtke i poduzetnik, rekao je za BBC da žali što je učinio: “U to vrijeme, moj život je bio zbrkan, imao sam mnogo vrsta problema.” Iznenadio se kad je svoje ime našao na listi jer je davno završio izdržavanje 14-mjesečne uvjetne kazne i platio je odštetu veleposlanstvu. Finske vlasti dodijelile su mu državljanstvo prije nekoliko godina i smatrale su slučaj veleposlanstva zatvorenim, rekao je. Turska ga optužuje da je član militantnog PKK-a, koji poziva na veću kurdsku samoupravu i uključen je u oružanu borbu s turskom državom. Fatih je rekao da nije imao nikakve veze ili ideološke veze s PKK-om i da vjeruje da je na meti isključivo zbog svog kurdskog podrijetla. Kurdi čine 15-20% stanovništva Turske, ali su generacijama suočeni s progonom u Turskoj. Vlada u Ankari pokušava zabraniti prokurdsku stranku HDP, treću po veličini u parlamentu. Iako Fatih nije vjerovao da će biti izručen kao finski državljanin, bojao se uznemiravanja u lokalnoj turskoj zajednici ili mogućeg uhićenja u inozemstvu na zahtjev Turske. Rekao je da je jako tužan što se Finska mora “boriti za njega”.

Aysen Furhoff: Učiteljica koja je pobjegla

Aysen Furhoff došla je u Švedsku nakon što je odslužila pet godina robije u Turskoj zbog pokušaja “podrivanja ustavnog poretka” kada je imala 17 godina i bila je članica Turske komunističke partije. Rekla je da joj je u Švedskoj ponuđena zaštita nakon mučenja u zatvoru. Sada ima 45 godina, živi u Stockholmu sa suprugom i kćeri i radi kao učiteljica, a inzistira na tome da više nije uključena u tursku politiku. “Otišla sam iz Turske prije 20 godina. Ako me tamo pošalju, neće imati nikakve koristi od mene. Svi koje poznajem su ili mrtvi ili u zatvoru. Zato je biti na popisu bilo iznenađujuće – tko sam ja za njih?” Gospođa Furhoff kaže da je također kazneno gonjena u Turskoj jer je članica PKK. Priznaje da je s njima surađivala tri mjeseca prije nekih 25 godina. Iako više ne simpatizira PKK, poriče da su oni teroristička skupina i vjeruje da bi trebali biti dio rasprava za pregovarački mir u Turskoj. Pozivajući se na švedski zakon, ona nije zabrinuta oko izručenja, ali joj je teško povjerovati da bi mogla biti važan slučaj za Ankaru.

Srbija zatvorila Erdoganovog protivnika u samicu

Kako piše Nova.rs. turski aktivist i političar Ečevit Piroglu, koji se duže od godinu dana nalazi u ekstradicijskom zatvoru u Srbiji, mogao bi uskoro biti izručen Turskoj. Protivnik vlasti Erdogana suočava se sa teškim zatvorskim uvjetima, a njegove kolege upozoravaju da će, ukoliko dođe do izručenja, Pirogu biti životno ugrožen. Zbog toga je “Inicijativa za slobodu” uputila službeni dopis Europskom parlamentu, tražeći od Bruxellesa da reagira na kršenje njegovih ljudskih prava. Dnevno.hr Read the full article

[funcrustables]

Wtf my mom worked at a Gulenist charter school I didn’t even realize

[middleeasternsarecool]

WikiLeaks has released a tranche of more than 57,000 personal emails from the account of Turkey's Minister of Oil Berat Albayrak.

Albayrak is the son-in-law of the country's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The emails span a six-year period from 2000 to 2016 and allegedly reveal his level of influence in the country's political scene.

The emails appear to have been obtained by Turkish hacktivist group Redhack, and which threatened to make his communications public back in September.

The emails, which allegedly contain details of exchanges between Albayrak and the Turkish 'ruling elite' were briefly published earlier this year, before being taken down following a crackdown by the Turkish government.

WikiLeaks alleges that the emails reveal 'Albayrak's involvement in organisations such as Powertrans, the company implicated in Isis oil imports'.

The company has been implicated in oil imports from ISIS-controlled oil fields.

Turkey banned oil transportation by road or railway in or out of the country in more than five years ago, but with provision for limited exceptions such as meeting the needs of the military.

WikiLeaks claims that the Turkish government later gave Powertrans the monopoly on the transit of oil.

Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder, said the emails had been published in response to the Turkish government's silencing of detractors.

He said: 'The people of Turkey need a free media and a free internet.

'The government's counter-coup efforts have gone well beyond their stated purpose of protecting the state from a second Gulenist coup attempt and are now primarily used to steal assets and eliminate critics.

'The Turkish government continues to use force to jail journalists, shut down media and restrict internet access to its citizens, depriving them of their ability to access information about their situation including by banning WikiLeaks.

'This consolidation around the power vertical of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ultimately weakens Turkish institutionalism, leaving Turkey more susceptible to future coups by those in Erdoğan's chain of command.'

[antisemitism-eu]

Greece is looking to be a stronger security partner for Israel

Via the Hudson Institute: Full Transcript: Dialogues on American Foreign Policy and World Affairs: Senator Chris Coons and Walter Russell Mead

(...) MEAD: Yeah. So how are they thinking in Greece about Erdogan’s Turkey and the U.S. relationship? COONS: Well, first, thank you for the question. One of the challenges is, these are NATO allies. And at a strategic level, one of the most pressing discussions was about an F-16 upgrade package for Greece, which is expensive and complicated because we are selling F-35s to Turkey. And the idea that you’ve got one NATO ally and another NATO ally worried about each other’s jet-fighter sophistication and air superiority should be troubling. Erdogan has, as you all know, taken a quite different direction. Turkey was Israel’s first, closest, strongest Muslim ally. Turkey, under Ataturk and for a long time afterwards, was a key bastion of a sort of more moderate or liberalizing influence in the Muslim world. Erdogan, after an attempt at joining the EU and after strengthening, consolidating his power in early years, has really turned fairly hard to the east and become more of an Islamist leader. And after both the conflict with Israel over the blockade of Gaza and then the allegedly Gulenist attempt at a coup last year, it has enraged Erdogan. And he is quite agitated against the United States and against Greece. And what we heard was reports of very regular interactions – encounters between naval and air forces between the Greeks and the Turks. The flood of refugees and how they’ve been handled and the navigation around that has created further tension. And just a lack of clarity about the relationship has put some severe pressure on it. Erdogan, though, to be clear, has visited Greece – the first head of Turkey to do so in decades. And the prime minister of Greece indicated an openness to trying to negotiate a way through this. Both parties see, I think, the United States as essential to helping pull them closer together rather than allowing, what may be unintended, accidents between naval forces or conflicts between – between aerial forces to create a flashpoint and drive them apart. The broader reality is that Greece is looking to be a stronger security partner for Israel, a stronger security partner for the United States, and made clear to us, they know they’re in a tough neighborhood. To the north, to the west, to the east, to the south, they’ve got potentially combative forces. And we shared some pointed conversations about Libya, the consequences of the Libyan adventure and the fall of Gaddafi and then the really destabilizing influence that’s having on the whole region

read more The New Antisemite: http://ift.tt/2ppablg

[collapsedsquid]

The software's function is to find Gulenists who haven't yet been identified as directly linked to the coup attempt. So far, some 5,600 TSK officers were found to be actively involved in the attempt and all have been discharged. An additional 9,500 personnel were dismissed because of their alleged secret communications using landlines.

The software collects and analyzes data about suspected personnel in seven main categories: personal data, education, entrance examination results, social life data, professional knowledge, foreign language examinations and service abroad, as well as information from other official bodies.

Using more than 200 criteria, an examination is made of a suspect's training, lifestyle, career, evaluation by superiors, family ties, marriage, service locations, courses attended, postgraduate studies, education of his wife and children and financial situation. These results are analyzed and each person is given a rating according to their estimated likelihood of joining an organization such as the Gulen movement.

This rating can bring about judicial investigations and also temporary removal from duty, further postings and above all, foreign postings. In other words, the new software serves as a detailed background check.

When calculating a person's Fetometer ranking, examination scores are important. It was found that after the 1990s, the Gulenist network had acquired in advance all questions on entrance exams to military high schools and academies, staff college exams and foreign language tests and provided them to soldiers the network wanted to recruit. The Fetometer measures their scores and checks for anomalies. For example, an officer whose mathematics and foreign language exam grades were very low is flagged if he suddenly starts getting high scores.

Need a bot or web app that will determine if I’m a Gulenist.

[tumbirus]

Hagia Sophia and Mr:Erdogans political drama in Turkish? A part of Mr:Erdogan's conservative Islamist base had been agitating for converting Hagia Sophia into a mosque ever since his party come to power in2002 .But Mr:Erdogan had ignored the demand as long as the Turkish economy was booming under his leadership and he was receiving credit for dismantling the miltry dominated authoritarian power structure the justice and Development party (AKP) had inherited from its secular Kemalist predecessors. All this changed after his re_election for second time in 2011 and especially from 2013 when the Gezipark protest against the governments decision to change the character of iconic Taksim Square in Istanbul building a mosque and installing ottoman _style buildings brought large numbers of protesters onto the streets. Mr:Erdogan's decision to change the established parliamentary system to a presidential one passed by thin majority of 51% to 49% in referendum in 2017.This was an indication of how the wind was blowing.Mr:Erdogan did win the presidential election held under the new system in2018,gaining over52%of the votes.However, in the simultaneously, the ruling AKP received only 42% of the votes,down from 49% in the previous elections. The figures do not bode well for Mr:Erdogan for next round of presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled in 2023.Mr:Erdogan's authoritarian trails and his disregard for constitutional norms if not the letter of the law(which he constantly rewrites l have been clearly on display since the fails coup of july2016.Thousands of civil servants and academics have been removed from their jobs and many of them imprisoned for their alleged links to the Gulenist movement. In recent years the economy has also taken a nosedive growth dipped to less than 1%in2019.The Turkish lira has fallen to approximately 7to one U.S dollar from a a high of about1.5to one 2011. These figures express the increasing unemployment and economic distress .Much of this the result of economic mismanagement with massive wasteful projects.........continue.. (at मुंबई Mumbai) https://www.instagram.com/p/CC1FcBGFzo_/?igshid=l3wnzt3vsrgq

[emrecelikrumi]

When paranoia sinks in.. #Rocky 'rises up' as latest #Gulenist threat to #Turkey @MiddleEastEye

http://dlvr.it/PxRSFR : from my twitter bit.ly/ECtweet

[newstfionline]

After a Turkish Prison, the Potent Symbol of a Lingering Kiss

By Carlotta Gall, NY Times, Oct. 13, 2017

ISTANBUL--When he was released from prison after midnight late last month, Kadri Gursel walked straight to his wife, Nazire, and embraced her. Their lingering kiss in front of the prison, and a soldier’s shy glancing away, was caught on camera by a Turkish photographer and sent round the world.

The kiss came to stand for freedom in more ways than one in today’s Turkey. Tens of thousands of people have been arrested or purged from their jobs under a state of emergency declared after a failed coup attempt last year, but that is not the only source of tension. There is also the government’s deepening religious conservatism, which is changing the face of the republic.

For Mr. Gursel the kiss was spontaneous, but it symbolizes much of who he is. A senior columnist for Cumhuriyet, Turkey’s leading opposition newspaper, and board member of the International Press Institute, which works for press freedom, he is one of the most prominent political prisoners to be swept up in the government crackdown.

“We behaved not politically but naturally,” he said of the kiss. But he recognizes that it signifies more to many people. “This has been interpreted as a disobedience to the political culture, the invasion of the public sphere and the imposing of religious conservatism,” he said. “I think we did well. This was needed.”

In one of his first interviews after 11 months in prison, Mr. Gursel, 56, a lean, soft-spoken intellectual, told of his anger at what he called the baseless charges against him and his colleagues, and described the chronicle of persecution that has steadily closed down news outlets in Turkey and shut down independent voices under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Accused of aiding a terrorist organization in a group indictment with 18 others, he still faces serious charges. Most of the accused are from Cumhuriyet, including reporters, executives, a cartoonist and an accountant. Detained 11 months ago, only three of the group remain in jail: a reporter, Ahmet Sik; the editor in chief, Murat Sabuncu; and the paper’s chief executive, Akin Atalay.

“I control my anger. I am not a captive of my anger,” he said, speaking in English and pausing to choose his words. “But someone who stayed 11 months in prison, should be angry. I am very angry.”

As with tens of thousands of other Turkish citizens, they were rounded up in countrywide purges, many of them accused, like Mr. Gursel, of having links to Fethullah Gulen, the United States-based cleric who is blamed by Turkey for directing the failed coup.

More than a hundred news media outlets have been closed and more than 120 journalists detained--more than in any other country in the world, human rights organizations say.

Mr. Erdogan has denied jailing masses of journalists, saying that all but two of those arrested are journalists. The rest he described as terrorists.

The Cumhuriyet group was charged with pursuing an editorial line that favored Mr. Gulen’s movement, as well as the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., and a third far-left group. The Turkish government treats all three groups as terrorist organizations.

Mr. Gursel was specifically charged with communicating with Gulen supporters through the Bylock encrypted messaging app. He vehemently rejected the accusations in lengthy testimony in the opening phases of his trial in July last year, and now says that he should never have been detained or charged in the first place.

He pointed out that he never had the app installed on his phone, and although he received scores of messages a couple of years ago from Gulenists in a campaign to win his sympathy, he did not respond to any of them.

His persistence, what he calls his “boring defense,” as well as international pressure paid off with his release from prison, though he still faces a potential 15-year prison sentence if he is ultimately found guilty when his trial resumes at the end of the month.

Sitting in his sunlit apartment overlooking the Bosporus, he said he would not complain about conditions in the Silivri prison, where he was held along with hundreds of other political prisoners--district governors, police chiefs, wealthy businessmen, militants of the far-left, Kurdish members of Parliament and, lately, human rights defenders.

He called it a “nasty, ugly joke” that he was locked up with hundreds of followers of Mr. Gulen, Islamists whom he had criticized strongly in the past. He refers to them generally as the members of cemaat, a fellowship of Islamists, and he is not a fan, joining other critics in accusing them of using underhanded tactics in past years to infiltrate the government and expand their power base.

He says he spent most of his time in prison with two other colleagues in a set of rooms with a kitchen and bathroom: “You cannot call it a cell, they were rooms.” But communication with the outside was limited, and access to a lawyer restricted and without privacy.

Born and brought up in Istanbul, where his father was a businessman, Mr. Gursel found left-wing politics early in life, and the government found him. At age 18 he was imprisoned for nearly four years for belonging to an illegal organization and for crimes against the state.

“Trouble came after me in this country,” he said. “I did not seek it, it followed me. I insisted to be myself and go after my choices.”

While the conviction did not dim his determination to fight for what he believed in, it did have one long-term impact: Because of it, he could not go to college.

His most recent incarceration came at the height of a distinguished career in journalism that he began by publishing a newsletter at primary school. He worked as a reporter with Agence France-Presse in the 1990s--at one point being held captive for three weeks by the P.K.K.--and served as foreign news editor and senior columnist for 19 years at a prominent daily, Milliyet.

For the past decade, his columns and regular television appearances have been a thorn in the side of the president, the governing Justice and Development Party and his own newspaper bosses. As presidential elections approached in 2015, he was fired from Milliyet--for a tweet criticizing Mr. Erdogan’s Syria policy--and dropped from mainstream television.

He joined Cumhuriyet, one of Turkey’s oldest newspapers, but within just a few months, as Mr. Erdogan was seeking greater powers in a referendum, that paper, too, came under siege.

“I was jailed when there was no instrument left to silence me,” Mr. Gursel concluded. “They wanted to silence the newspaper and punish it for its disturbing articles, and they wanted to settle accounts with me.”