Group launches campaign to write letters to 32 journalists jailed in Turkey

Doğahan Giritlioğlu - ANKARA

Can Dündar, the editor-in-chief of opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, right, and Erdem Gül, the paper's Ankara representative, left, speak to the media outside a courthouse in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, Nov. 26, 2015. AP Photo

Members of the G-9 Journalists Platform have started a campaign to send letters to 32 journalists jailed in Turkey, including daily Cumhuriyet Editor-in-Chief Can Dündar and Ankara Bureau Chief Erdem Gül.

The journalists gathered near a desk in the Kızılay district of Ankara on Dec. 14 and wrote letters to 32 journalists who are currently imprisoned in Turkey. Republican People’s Party (CHP) General Secretary Gürsel Tekin also attended the event and sent a letter.

Öznur Dündar, the mother of Can Dündar, wrote in a letter: “My son, I joined a ‘write a letter’ campaign. I learned that you have washed your clothes. I hug you with love and longing.”

Cumhuriyet Ankara News Editor Ayşe Sayın read the letters of Dündar and Gül, who were arrested and imprisoned over their coverage of National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks purportedly carrying weapons to those fighting in Syria.