Hot on the heels of its move to close 15 literary and media outlets in an effort to silence alternative voices, Turkey’s AKP government turns its sights on Cumhuriyet newspaper, one of the last remaining bastions of independent journalism in the country. At least 14 writers and administrators were detained in early-morning raids on 31 […]
Hot on the heels of its move to close 15 literary and media outlets in an effort to silence alternative voices, Turkey’s AKP government turns its sights on Cumhuriyet newspaper, one of the last remaining bastions of independent journalism in the country. At least 14 writers and administrators were detained in early-morning raids on 31 October
Turkish police staged early-morning raids on 31 October against Cumhuriyet newspaper, an internationally renowned opposition publication, detaining at least 12 journalists and administrators in the latest attack on the free press in Turkey.
Editor-in-Chief Murat Sabuncu was detained on charges of aiding and abetting the Gülenist movement as well as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Those also detained include book supplement Editor-in-Chief Turhan Günay, writer, Hikmet Çetinkaya, writer Aydın Engin, writer Güray Öz, writer Hakan Kara, caricaturist Musa Kart, as well as administrators Bülent Utku, Mustafa Kemal Güngör, Önder Çelik, Bülent Yener and Eser Sevinç.
Cumhuriyet writer Kadri Gürsel was subsequently detained later after being summoned to testify.
All those detained will be prevented from meeting with lawyers for a week.
Two others, administrator Akın Atalay and journalist Nebil Özgentürk, could not be detained because they are overseas. Another, Orhan Erinç, was not detained due to his advanced age.
“The detention of a caricaturist is the official proclamation of the presidential system. May Tayyip Erdoğan’s presidency be beneficial for us all,” Kart said as he was being detained. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been making concerted efforts to implement an executive presidential system that would remove all checks and balances against his rule.
Press organizations and political parties and organizations called for protests in solidarity with the newspaper and the diminishing state of press freedom in Turkey starting at 19.00 on 31 October.
Cumhuriyet both ‘Gülenist and PKK’
The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office said it was moving against Cumhuriyet because it is a “sponsor of the PKK/KCK and FETÖ/PDY Terror Organizations,” conducted “improper elections in 2013 for membership in the foundation” that oversees the newspaper and published “articles that legitimized a coup shortly before the July 15 attempted coup.”
The KCK refers to the Kurdistan Communities Union, an umbrella group of Kurdish groups, FETÖ refers to the Fethullahist Terror Organization and the PDY refers to the Parallel State Structure. Although the PKK and the Gülenist movement are sworn enemies, Turkish prosecutors taking their cues from Erdoğan’s government have sought to portray them as acting in concert.
The reasons for the raids are “comical,” Kart said. “I’ve drawn hundreds or thousands of cartoons about FETÖ and the PKK. But when you look at the justifications listed today, [you see] that we’re really living through a comedy.”
Kart also said he felt like he was living in a cartoon himself, adding that it would be impossible to explain to the world what was happening.
DİSK Basın-İş: ‘Who’s benefiting from the coup?’
DİSK Basın-İş immediately criticized the raids against Cumhuriyet, saying the press “cannot be silenced.”
“Using the attempted coup of 15 July as an excuse to declare a state of emergency, the AKP is seeking to firmly suppress all opposition, lest the slightest oppositional voice be heard. It’s a tradition in Turkey: after every large attack or incident, a state official soberly proffers in front of the cameras: ‘Whoever benefits from this is the perpetrator.’ Now we’re asking: Who’s benefiting from 15 July? Freedom of thought and expression are universal rights. Freedom of thought and expression are not possible in a country in which the news cannot be freely conveyed,” it said.
“May we remind the cheap impersonators of Abdülhamid once more: You can close TV channels and newspapers, but you can’t silence them,” it said.
The detentions come as part of a state of emergency declared after the failed 15 July coup that was blamed on Gülenists. Since July, Erdoğan and his government have conducted a counter-coup, dismissing tens of thousands of civil servants, stepping up operations against Kurdish rebels in the southeast of the country, arresting members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Development Party (HDP) and closing numerous Gülenist, socialist and Kurdish media outlets.
Judicial authorities also issued a warrant for Can Dündar, a former editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet who became a bête noir for the government by lifting the lid on how Turkey’s spy agency was allegedly sending weapons to jihadists in Syria. Dündar was sentenced to five years in jail for a story on the arms transfer on the same day that he survived an assassination attempt outside an Istanbul courthouse. Dündar left the country during the appeals process, but his wife, Dilek Dündar, was subsequently prevented from going to visit him as part of a state of emergency policy to effectively punish the family members of wanted individuals.
Sendika.Org, Cumhuriyet, Diken
