{"id":204939,"date":"2026-11-13T17:17:22","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T17:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/204939\/"},"modified":"2026-11-13T17:17:22","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T17:17:22","slug":"turkish-rights-group-condemns-detention-of-protesters-for-allegedly-insulting-aliyev","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/204939\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkish rights group condemns detention of protesters for allegedly insulting Aliyev"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo: president.az<\/p>\n

A Turkish human rights group has condemned the detention of three people accused of insulting Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev during a protest against headscarf restrictions in Azerbaijani schools, calling the police action unlawful.<\/p>\n

The Human Rights and Solidarity Association for the Oppressed (MAZLUMDER) said<\/a> Thursday that Ya\u011fmur Karag\u00f6z and Emine Silek, members of its Human Rights Violations Committee, and Buse Nur Yasta\u015f were detained over a placard displayed at a November 8 demonstration in \u0130stanbul\u2019s Sara\u00e7hane neighborhood.<\/p>\n

All three were released after questioning. Lawyers were prevented from meeting with them in custody, according to the group.<\/p>\n

MAZLUMDER challenged the legal basis for the detentions, arguing that the alleged offense required a complaint and qualified for a statutory procedure allowing suspects to avoid trial by paying a prescribed sum to the state.<\/p>\n

No complaint was on file in the Sara\u00e7hane case, it added, making even the initiation of an investigation unlawful in its assessment.<\/p>\n

\u201cJudicial authorities in Turkey cannot be turned into an instrument for silencing reactions directed at another state,\u201d the group said, accusing the authorities of intimidating citizens in response to Azerbaijan\u2019s objections.<\/p>\n

The detentions follow similar action against two representatives of the Islamist K\u00f6kl\u00fc De\u011fi\u015fim media outlet over criticism of the restrictions.<\/p>\n

The outlet\u2019s \u0130stanbul representative, Muhammed Emin Y\u0131ld\u0131r\u0131m, was detained<\/a> in late October and questioned on suspicion of insulting a foreign head of state after calling Aliyev a \u201ctyrant\u201d on social media and a \u201cdictator\u201d during a protest. Its Hatay representative, Ahmet Sapa, was detained at his home the following day over social media posts.<\/p>\n

The controversy was sparked\u00a0after Azerbaijan amended<\/a> its school uniform rules on September 21\u00a0to prohibit clothing considered incompatible with prescribed uniforms or the secular principles of education. Although the rules do not explicitly mention headscarves, some schools have used them to turn away girls wearing them. Teachers have also faced restrictions.<\/p>\n

Criticism from Turkish politicians and religious figures drew a sharp response from Baku. Aliyev\u2019s ruling New Azerbaijan Party accused Turkish political figures of interfering in the country\u2019s domestic affairs, while Azerbaijani authorities barred 31 Turkish nationals from entering the country and issued arrest warrants for seven Turkish nationals over social media posts and protest speeches.<\/p>\n

Middle East Eye reported in October that Baku had asked Ankara to dismiss presidential chief adviser Oktay Saral, prosecute commentators accused of insulting Aliyev and block social media accounts identified by Azerbaijani officials.<\/p>\n

Saral, who had called the headscarf restrictions unacceptable and urged their reversal, resigned<\/a> on October 26 after saying President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan had ordered his departure.<\/p>\n

Erdo\u011fan and Aliyev pledged<\/a> to preserve their alliance during a November 8 visit by Erdo\u011fan to Azerbaijan, presenting a united front after weeks of friction. Aliyev subsequently attended<\/a> the COP31 climate leaders\u2019 summit in Antalya on November 11, where Erdo\u011fan and UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres welcomed him.<\/p>\n

The two countries maintain close political, military and economic ties, traditionally describing their relationship as \u201cone nation, two states.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: president.az A Turkish human rights group has condemned the detention of three people accused of insulting Azerbaijani…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[83],"tags":[86943,78405,2532,90666,425,90667,11968,90668,312,34597,427,86948,428,90669,86951,59383,429,3579,9313,8015,131,132,155,90670],"class_list":["post-204939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-stockholm","tag-ahmet-sapa","tag-arbitrary-detention","tag-azerbaijan","tag-buse-nur-yastas","tag-democracy","tag-emine-silek","tag-freedom-of-expression","tag-headscarf-restrictions","tag-human-rights","tag-ilham-aliyev","tag-justice","tag-koklu-degisim","tag-law","tag-mazlumder","tag-muhammed-emin-yildirim","tag-oktay-saral","tag-oppression","tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan","tag-religious-freedom","tag-right-to-protest","tag-stockholm","tag-sweden","tag-turkey","tag-yagmur-karagoz"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117610272972962650","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}