Ayşe Büyükgezirici, a nurse, is another victim of Erdogan’s persecution in Turkey. While she was pregnant, a public prosecutor in the northwestern province of Kocaeli ordered her detention as part of a prosecution. The court released her pending trial under judicial supervision that required her to check in with the police three days a week. Under duress and pressure, Büyükgezirici delivered her baby boy prematurely. Doctors needed to monitor the boy, named Yavuz Selim, on a constant basis, and treated him for anemia with regular injections every week.

While both mother and the baby were being treated, another prosecutor, this time from the province of Tekirdag, launched an investigation into her on similar charges and secured a detention warrant for her on February 15, 2017. Her lawyer challenged the decision, saying that a similar case on the same charges was already under way and presented the doctor’s report on why her and baby’s health required Büyükgezirici to stay in Balıkesir, her hometown. Yet prosecutor Sedat Tas insisted on her detention anyway and she was put in police custody along with the baby for two days. Later she and the baby were transported in an armored vehicle from Balıkesir to Tekirdag, a four-hour drive. Büyükgezirici was also separated from her two other children, aged 9 and 13. No information is available on her or baby Selim’s current status or their health

In another case, police came to detain journalist Bülent Korucu, editor-in-chief of the critical national daily Yarina Bakis, which was shut down by the government in July, but instead detained his wife Hacer on July 30, 2016, just two weeks after the failed coup. The message the police were sending was that she would be kept as a hostage until her husband surrendered.

Hacer, a mother of five who had nothing to do with a journalism other than being an avid reader of the daily her husband managed, was formally arrested on August 9, 2016. She has been in jail without a conviction since then. Police went to the Korucu home several times afterwards, even threatening their children with jail as well. The EU Commission has called on Turkey to respect human rights in response to the arrest of journalist Bülent Korucu’s wife.

Nejla Akdag and her husband were working as teachers at a public school in the northwestern province of Edirne until the government launched a massive purge of members of the Gülen movement on trumped-up charges. Nejla was detained on August 30, 2016, but was released afterwards to take care of her ailing 86-year-old mother, Fahriye Asrak, who had cardiac problems and was paralyzed and bedridden. Nejla’s 83-year-old father also suffers from chronic heart problems and has high blood sugar. Nejla’s husband had left home to look for a job but was not heard from again after police searched their home on August 30, 2016.

Akdag was detained again on January 27, 2017 when police raided the home where she lived with her three children and elderly parents. She showed her mother’s medical reports to the police and told them that she had a sick mother and three children to take care of. The police said she would be released when her husband surrenders. Akdag was formally arrested three days later and sent to pre-trial detention after three days in custody. Her mother died only 10 days after her daughter was put in prison. Akdag’s two children reportedly refuse to go to school after twice experiencing the trauma of police raids on their home and the absence of both parents.