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Joint Report: No Country for the Purge Victims!

The Arrested Lawyers Initiative and the Human Rights Defenders published a joint report documenting the deprivations which Turkey’s purge victims suffer.

According the report, those who purged under the Emergency Regimeshall be deprived of their ranks and their positions as public officials;

* may not use their titles, if any, e.g., ambassador, governor, etc;

* shall not be re-admitted to the organization in which they had previously held office;

* shall be stripped of rank (for the already retired public servants), and of combat medals;

* may not be re-employed and assigned, either directly or indirectly, to any public service;

* may not become the founders, partners and employees of private security companies,

* shall be evicted from public residences or foundation houses; and

* moreover, their passports, gun licenses, seamanship or pilots’ licenses, shall be cancelled.

Besides the direct consequences, mentioned above, The purged civil servants cannot

* be a foster family,

* be lawyers and accountants,

* be mayors, aldermen or mukhtars (local elected administrator for villages), 

* work as architects, engineers, laboratory worker, or as technicians in building inspection companies,

* attend vocational courses,

* work in private educational institutions,

* work as an on-site (workplace) doctor or as an occupational safety specialist,

* work as sailors,

* have passports and travel documents,

* open bank accounts and are discriminated against in financial transactions and procedures,

* benefit from the General Health Insurance for people with low income and from the social rights offered to disabled people.

Moreover,

* the purged civil servants who work as veterinarians cannot have an artificial insemination certificate and cannot perform their profession duties in agricultural support programs,

* the purged civil servants are denied the license needed to run businesses.

* The database of the General Directorate of the Land Registry (TAKBIS) includes a list of suspicious people, which consists of those dismissed under emergency decrees. Those included on this list cannot participate in real estate transactions, either as a party (vendee or vendor) or as a witness.

* Upon an instruction by the Ministry of Justice, the Union of Turkish Public Notaries produced a list of suspicious people which consists of those dismissed under emergency decrees. People included in this list cannot carry out any procedure as notaries other than giving a power of attorney. This means they cannot carry out hundreds of legal procedures, including selling their cars or signing construction contracts.

* The database for the Social Relief Program (SOYBIS) includes the list of those dismissed under emergency decrees. Disabled people whose first caregivers (such as parents, sons, daughters, sons-in-law and daughters-in- law) are dismissed under emergency decrees cannot benefit from social care funds.

* The purged public servants are discriminated against in regard to insurance services.

* The purged public servants are discriminated against in business development and incentive credits.

* The purged public servants are discriminated against in relation to mandatory military services.

* The purged academics are discriminated against in academic publishing.

* The purged civil servants are blacklisted in the databases of the Employment and the Social Security Agencies with the code 36/OHAL/KHK.