Turkey’s government has issued warrants to detain another 35 people, including journalists, with alleged links to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gülen just two days after authorities detained dozens of Kurdish journalists, reportedly bringing the total number of journalists now held in Turkey to 140.
Hürriyet reported that police detained nine of the 35 sought under the new warrants this morning, including Hürriyet editor Dinçer Gökçe; it said another 18 were believed to be outside of Turkey.
Identities and whereabouts of the other eight were not immediately known, but reports indicated that they included prominent journalist Yavuz Baydar, whose home police raided and searched this morning.
Today’s detentions followed a raid on Sunday on the Diyarbakir offices of Kurdish-language daily Azadiya Welat, reportedly on terrorism-related accusations. The Kurdish DİHA news agency reported that 25 people were taken into custody in connection with the raid. It came less than two weeks after authorities temporarily closed pro-Kurdish newspaper Özgür Gündem for allegedly spreading terrorist propaganda on behalf of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
International Press Institute (IPI) Director of Advocacy and Communications Steven M. Ellis condemned this week’s detentions and the ongoing crackdown on journalists.
“The Turkish government is targeting journalists who worked for media outlets allegedly linked to the Gülen movement, but it offers no proof that they were part of the movement, much less that they had anything to do with the July 15 coup attempt,” he said. “And journalists with no outward connection to Gülen, but who have criticised the regime, are being swept up in this dragnet. At the same time, the government is also seizing the opportunity to renew a crackdown on Kurdish media.”
He continued: “As this purge continues to grow in duration and scope, it increasingly resembles not an attempt to bring actual coup supporters to justice, but a bid to silence critics and settle old scores. We urge Turkey’s lawmakers to end the state of emergency and return the country to the rule of law; we similarly call on the international community to neither ignore nor accept abuses of human rights carried out in the name of ‘restoring democracy’.”
Turkish authorities accuse Gülen of orchestrating the bloody coup attempt, which killed at least 240 people. Despite Gülen’s denial of responsibility, authorities initiated a crackdown on his suspected followers that has led to the detention of more than 40,000 people and the firing or suspension of some 80,000 people from positions in the judiciary, police, civil service and academia, among others.
According to PEN International, before this morning’s detentions some 131 journalists were already being held in Turkey. Thirty-seven of them were in custody awaiting a hearing, while the others had been formally arrested; of those under arrest, 63 had been detained following the coup attempt.
The country is now nearly halfway through a three-month state of emergency adopted shortly after the coup attempt that gives President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his cabinet authority to rule by decree. Politicians with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have hinted that the state of emergency could be ended early or that it could potentially be extended.
