Editor-in-Chief arrested in coup plot case

BODRUM – Anadolu Agency / Doğan News Agency

Merdan Yanardağ (R) has been arrested by a court after being taken in custody on Sept. 13. DHA photo

The Editor-in-Chief of daily Yurt, Merdan Yanardağ, who had been taken into custody during the evening on Sept. 13 in the Aegean resort town of Bodrum, has been arrested by a local court following his interrogation.
 
Yanardağ was searched with an arrest warrant after he had been sentenced to 10 years and 6 months of prison during the Ergenekon trial on Aug. 5.
 
“I came to Bodrum for the preparations of a new book. We went to the police department upon the invitation of the police officers who came to my summer house. They are treating me well,” Yanardağ told reporters after he was taken into custody.
 
“Democracy will come to our country. We won’t surrender and be silenced by dictatorship. We will continue defending freedoms. No dictatorship will live forever,” he said, adding that he did not accept the verdict on the case.
 
Daily Yurt was established in January 2012 by the businessman and main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Durdu Özbolat.

Meanwhile, retired colonel Tanju Sirmen, who was also detained along with Yanardağ as part of the Feb. 28 investigation, was released following the interrogation.

The Feb. 28 process refers to the infamous “post-modern coup,” a military intervention that forced late ex-Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan to resign after a meeting of the National Security Council (MGK) on Feb. 28, 1997.

The landmark trial, whose top suspect is former Chief of General Staff retired Gen. İsmail Hakkı Karadayı, started on Sept. 2.