Opposition slams detention of Cumhuriyet journalists, calls for joint struggle against raid

ANKARA

AP Photo

Two opposition parties have condemned the detention of the editor-in-chief and more than a dozen journalists of daily Cumhuriyet early on Oct. 31, saying the move passes another threshold in pressure on dissidents by the Turkish government. 

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu visited Cumhuriyet’s Ankara Bureau and met with bureau chief Erdem Gül and reporters to express his support and solidarity with the newspaper, which is targeted over alleged “links with terror organizations.”

“We will altogether struggle against this,” Kılıçdaroğlu told Gül during the visit.

In a statement issued after his visit to Cumhuriyet, the CHP head slammed the government for “turning the July 15 coup attempt into an opportunity to crack down on intellectuals, writers and journalists.”

“They are trying to change the constitutional order through state of emergency decree laws. A big responsibility is on the shoulders of the Constitutional Court. If it had accepted our appeal [for the annulment of decree laws breaching the constitution], none of this would have happened,” Kılıçdaroğlu said. 

Describing Cumhuriyet as one of Turkey’s most important newspapers, he called on all intellectuals, journalists, writers to defend the newspapers against oppressors. 

“Don’t forget that if you keep silent now, you will be next,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.  

 Police detained Cumhuriyet editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu, writers Aydın Engin, Hikmet Çetinkaya, Güray Öz, Hakan Kara, and cartoonist Musa Kart, and also raided the houses of executive board chairman Akın Atalay and columnist Kadri Gürsel. Those detained have been banned from meeting their lawyers for five days, the newspaper said in a statement, adding that they are accused of aiding the movement of U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

No fair trial: HDP

Selahattin Demirtaş, co-leader of the Kurdish issue-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), criticized the detention of the Cumhuriyet journalists, saying the move was part of ongoing pressure against all dissidents in Turkey, following the arrest of the HDP co-mayors Gultan Kışanak and Fırat Anlı in Diyarbakır and former MP Ayla Akat Ata. 

“There is no fair trial. If there was, we would think our friends would be acquitted. But this is a political operation. The operation against Cumhuriyet newspaper is part of this pressure,” Demirtaş said. 

“I agree [with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] that the ‘world is bigger than five.’ But Turkey is also bigger than Erdoğan and the [ruling Justice and Development Party] AKP. He should not forget this,” he said, referring to the president’s condemnation of the five-member U.N. Security Council.

ÇGD criticizes detentions 

Crowds gathered outside the Cumhuriyet office in Istanbul’s Şişli district to protest the operation against the newspaper, while leading press organizations also slammed the raids. 

“The Republic of Turkey has been going through an historical turning point since July 15, 2016. This is about … abolishing all universal values including the right to live and social rights. The most explicit indications of it are the growing pressure against the Turkish press and the policies to destroy it,” the Contemporary Journalists Association (ÇGD) said in a written statement on Oct. 31.  

“This is the process of the destruction of free thought,” it added, recalling that a number of media organizations had been shut down through state of emergency decree laws over the weekend.