Turkish
Turkish may refer to:
*a Turkic language spoken by the Turks
* of or about Turkey
** Turkish language
*** Turkish alphabet
** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
*** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey
*** Turkish communities ...
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...
Fatih, İstanbul
Fatih () is a district of and a municipality (''belediye'') in Istanbul, Turkey, and home to almost all of the provincial authorities (including the governor's office, police headquarters, metropolitan municipality and tax office) but not the co ...
on 14 August 1986 to Hasan Erdem and his wife Hüsniye. He completed his primary and secondary education in İstanbul. During his youth, he worked as an auxiliary staff to make extra money. He wrote eight books:
* ''Gayya Karanlığından Kur’an Aydınlığına, Abdestli Kapitalizm''
* ''Nurjuvazi''
* ''Şeytan Evliyaları''
* ''Selman-ı Pak''
* ''İslam ve Kapitalizm''
* ''Riya Tabirleri'', ''Devrim Ayetleri''
Erdem was elected as a Republican People's Party (CHP)
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...
for
Istanbul
Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
November 2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the A ...
. He is married with one child and can speak
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national id ...
at a fluent level.
Erdem leaked a number of documents from Turkish government surveillance of
ISIL
An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
-members. The documents are said to show detailed information about activities and locations of ISIL-members, but also a lack of action on part of the Turkish government. Erdem has alleged a cover-up by the Turkish government, which is implicated in having poor control of the Turkish-Syrian border. Erdem also claims that
sarin
Sarin (NATO designation GB G-series, "B"">Nerve_agent#G-series.html" ;"title="hort for Nerve agent#G-series">G-series, "B" is an extremely toxic synthetic organophosphorus compound.Syria, where it was used in the 2013
Ghouta chemical attack
The Ghouta chemical attack, was a chemical attack carried out by the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in the early hours of 21 August 2013 in Ghouta, Syria during the Syrian civil war. Two opposition-controlled areas in the su ...
, and ISIL attacks against civilians. Erdem showed before the parliament a case where investigations leading to the arrest of 13 potential Turkish ISIL-members were made, but later inexplicably dropped. The leaks are also said to implicate that Erdogan's immediate family in his son-in-law,
Berat Albayrak
Berat Albayrak ( born 21 February 1978) is a Turkish businessman and former politician, and the son-in-law of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He is a former CEO of Çalık Holding. He was a member of parliament from Istanbul in the 25th, ...
, made financial gain through oil-deals with ISIL-members.
The material was released through an interview with the English-language Russian news-service
Russia Today
RT (formerly Russia Today or Rossiya Segodnya (russian: Россия Сегодня) is a Russian state-controlled international news television network funded by the Russian government. It operates pay television and free-to-air channel ...
, and has been said to promote Russian anti-
AK Party
The Justice and Development Party ( tr, Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, ; AKP), abbreviated officially AK Party in English, is a political party in Turkey self-describing as conservative-democrat. It is one of the two major parties of contemporar ...
and anti-Erdogan sentiment. Erdem faces treason charges in Turkey for his leaks. A trial was also directed to two journalists who reported on the story, but it has since been dropped.
2018: new arrest
In June, 2018, he was arrested again, charged with issues which include his role as an editor-in-chief of the ''Karşı'' newspaper, the revealing the identity of a
secret witness
A secret witness (or anonymous witness) is a witness which is granted anonymity in a trial by the juridical authority. The identity of the witness is not disclosed to the defendant and the general public except the secret witness agrees to it. It i ...
and his alleged support for the
Gülen movement
The Gülen movement ( tr, Gülen hareketi), referred to by its participants as Hizmet ("service") or Cemaat ("community") and since 2016 by the Government of Turkey as FETÖ ("Fethullahist Terrorist Organisation" or, more commonly, "Fethullah Ter ...
.
A court in Istanbul freed him on January 7, 2019, but he was immediately rearrested. In February 2019, it was reported that Erdem was on hunger strike. On October 31, the Istanbul Public Prosecutor's office ordered that Erdem be released.