Journalist Idris Sayılğan of the Mezopotamya News Agency arrested for documenting the refugee plight at Turkish borders.

Sayılğan was on duty at the border area of Edirne documenting the events after Turkey, as a weapon aimed at Europe, opened the borders for all Syrian and other refugees to pass to Greece. Currently, Turkey hosts around 3.6 million refugees from Syria who fled the war-torn country. Turkey demands payments from Europe for hosting the refugees.

In response to being left alone after Turkey attacked Syrian government forces and the Syrian Army, Turkey decided to force the “West’s” hand by exerting pressure using the refugees. Not caring for the safety of human lives, the refugees were allowed, by their own means, to rush to the borders that had been closed with barbed wires by Greece.

Greece and Bulgaria deployed army troops to the border to prevent the refugees fleeing from first Syria then Turkey. Bulgaria just announced it was deploying an additional 1000 troops to secure its border.

Idris Sayılğan was detained by the Turkish gendarmerie at the border two days ago when he was filming the refugees trying to cross the border.

The government claimed journalists Idris Sayilğan and Naci Kaya had bans against “leaving the country” for their detention. The detained reporter Kaya was connected through an electronic system to the court in Aydın to testify that resulted in his release. However, reasons unknown, Aydin was not released but is still kept under detention.

Sayılğan, on the other hand, was brought to the court in Edirne. He too was connected to the Erzurum area court through electronic devices where he testified. He has a pending case facing 8 years 3 months prison sentence. However, this court had released the journalist previously while his case was pending a higher court decision.

The prosecutor demanded the arrest of Sayılğan and the court asked his defense. Sayılğan said he had been freed by the court pending higher court decision and had started working for the Mezopotamya News Agency a month ago. He testified that his team was filming in an open area when they were arrested. The government claims the team were filming in a restricted area and Sayılğan was trying to flee the country. Sayılğan said they had no idea that the area was designated as “restricted.” He said, “The entire press corps was there, at the same place, filming and reporting live. We were there on duty reporting the events on refugees. We had no intention of leaving the country. We were detained together with many other journalists but they were all released. Two reporters from Rudaw were detained as well, but later released. I request to be released.”

The court decided against the reporter’s request and arrested him.

Sendika.Org News (M.B.)