More journalists detained in operation against Gülen

ISTANBUL

Detention warrants have been issued for a total of 35 people, including journalists, as a part of the probe into the media leg of the July 15 failed coup attempt in Turkey. The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office released the detention warrants and nine journalists were detained in three different provinces. 

The detentions were carried out in Istanbul, Ankara and the Marmara province of Kocaeli, on grounds that the suspects were linked to the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ), believed to be behind the failed seizure of the Turkish government.

The individuals with detention warrants issued against them were also accused of using the media organs that they worked in and their social media accounts to make propaganda on behalf of the movement of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.  

Nurullah Öztürk, Rasih Yılmaz, Murat Aksoy, Abdullah Alparslan Akkuş, İskender Yunus Tiryaki, Levent Arap, Ömer Şahin and Ayhan Şimşek were detained, as well as daily Hürriyet editor Dinçer Gökçe. 

A total of 18 of the sought suspects were determined to be abroad, including Ergun Babahan, as the search to apprehend the other eight suspects was ongoing. 

Another detention warrant was issued for Babahan on Aug. 26 over a tweet he posted appearing to praise the armed attack on the motorcade of main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on Aug. 25.

“All those [who] lend support to fascism will pay for it. This includes Kılıçdaroğlu. This is just a beginning!” wrote Babahan. He previously worked at Gülen-linked daily Today’s Zaman, which was closed down.

Meanwhile, three computers, of which two were broken, were found in a field in the Kazan district of Ankara near the Akıncı Air Base, which was used as a center of coordination by the coup plotters on the night of the July 15 failed coup attempt. Two laptops and a tablet were found late on Aug. 29 by Halil İbrahim Gürağaç, who reported the findings to the gendarmerie. 

“I hope that certain information and documents linked to the treacherous coup plotters will be reached from these computers,” Gürağaç told Anadolu Agency, adding he would “be happy if any lead on the coup plotters will be reached from the machines.”

“One of the computers and the tablet were broken. I took the undamaged one home in order to protect it from the rain and notified the gendarmerie. I hope the blood of our 250 martyred siblings won’t be spilled for nothing,” he also said, referring to the 250 people killed by the coup plotters. 

Saying that he found the computers 50 meters away from the fence circling the base, Gürağaç added he had gone to the area to check his vegetable field.