An Istanbul court orders the ‘temporary’ closure of daily Özgür Gündem for alleged ‘terrorist propaganda’ before police storm the newspaper’s building in Beyoğlu, attacking journalists and detaining at least 24. Despite the pressure, the newspaper vows to print on 17 August

Turkish police beat and detained dozens of journalists at Özgür Gündem late on 16 August after an Istanbul court ordered the “temporary closure” of the newspaper for allegedly conducting propaganda on behalf of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The newspaper, which has been frequently targeted by the Turkish state since first it first began publishing in 1992, was order shut by the Istanbul 8^th Criminal Court of Peace earlier on 16 August, prompting police raids on the newspaper in the evening.

During the raids, at least 23 journalists were detained, including Özgür Gündem journalists Günay Aksoy, Doğan Güzel, Kemal Bozkurt, Reyhan Hacıoğlu, Önder Elaldı, Ender Öndeş, Sinan Balık, Davut Uçar, Fırat Yeşilçınar, İnan Kızılkaya, Zeki Erden, Elif Aydoğmuş, Bilir Kaya, Ersin Çaksu, Sevdiye Ergürbüz, Amine Demirkıran, Bayram Balcı and Burcu Özkaya, as well as Dicle News Agency (DİHA) reporters Özgür Paksoy and Mesut Kaynar.

imc TV reporter Gülfem Karataş was also attacked live on air and detained alongside her camera operator, Gökhan Çetin.

Hüseyin Gündüz, an employee at Doğu Publishing House who answered the call for solidarity protests in front of the newspaper, was also detained in the police attack, alongside a fellow demonstrator, Yılmaz Bozkurt of the Istanbul Medical Association.

Following the raids, municipal patrol officers sealed the building.

Elsewhere, a distributor for the newspaper in Adana, Hakan Ergün, was arrested by police.

Amid the attacks on the newspaper, police also staged a number of raids against writers’ homes, including Filiz Koçali, former Co-Editor-in-Chief Eren Keskin, and the paper’s publisher, Kemal Sancılı. The home of Van distributor Yılmaz Kumli was also raided by Turkish security forces.

Members of DİSK Basın-İş, the Turkish Journalists’ Union (TGS) and other professional groups arrived in solidarity with the newspaper, staging a press conference outside the building as they were denied access to the paper by police.

DİSK Basın-İş Chair Faruk Eren drew attention to the continuing pressures against the media in Turkey, noting that his organization had little time to engage in union work because it was too busy functioning like a human rights organization.

“They should know that tomorrow, Özgür Gündem will reach even more people,” Istanbul Halkevi (People’s Houses) Chair Cihan Uyanık also said outside the paper.

The newspaper announced that it would publish a four-page edition on 17 August with the headline “We will not bow down” (Boyun Eğmeyeceğiz).

The hashtag #ÖzgürGündemSusturulamaz (Özgür Gündem will not be silenced) was trending at the top of Twitter in Turkey in the wake of the attacks by the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan government and its police forces. Authorities, meanwhile, also banned access to the newspaper’s Twitter account in Turkey.

The attacks on the paper follow a series of raids on the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) around the country following last month’s attempted coup. Although the HDP opposed the coup, Turkey’s government has conspicuously shunned it while presenting a show of ostensible unity with the other opposition parties.

Özgür Gündem has been shut down numerous times since its foundation in 1992. During the 24 years of existence, 89 of the paper’s journalists or workers have been killed, frequently by state actors in extrajudicial killings. In December 1994, the newspaper was even bombed, resulting in the death of an employee and numerous injuries.

Sendika.Org, DİHA, Özgür Gündem