“Over 160 media outlets have been closed down since the failed coup, and there are few critical voices that have not been ruthlessly silenced,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey director at the monitoring organization Human Rights Watch, in a report released Monday.
Over the past week, Ankara has closed 15 media outlets, arrested the editor, Murat Sabuncu, and 11 staff of the independent daily newspaper Cumhuriyet, and arrested the two co-mayors of Diyarbakir.
“Jailing elected mayors and the assault on independent media seriously call into question whether Turkey’s political leaders have any regard for basic democratic principles,” said Sinclair-Webb.
An EU representative called into question Turkey’s commitment to freedom of expression, an essential foundation of the EU.
“The scale of detentions, dismissals and shut-downs, notably in the media sector, based on charges of alleged terrorism, is highly questionable,” said the EU’s Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn, in a statement published Monday.
Turkish political leaders have rejected the criticism. Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said his government will protect press freedom but that freedom must not be used in support of terrorism.
“They keep putting press freedom in front of us whenever we take steps in combating terror,” Yıldırım said, responding to EU criticisms in a televised address.
The leader of the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bahçeli, accused the closed media outlets of “hiding behind freedom of the press” while supporting terror.
“Freedom does not mean cursing at the people,” Bahçeli said. “Freedom does not mean mocking spirituality.”
The United States joined the condemnation, saying that they stand by their NATO ally in the fight against terrorism but Turkey must respect the rule of law and fundamental freedoms.
“Democracies become stronger by allowing diverse expressions of views, particularly in difficult times. Suppressing speech and opinion and the press does not support the fight against terrorism and only encroaches on the fundamental freedoms that help ensure democracies remain strong,” said US Department of State spokesperson John Kirby in a press briefing on Monday.
Ankara has appointed a former district governor as administrator to fill the position of mayor of Diyarbakir after the arrest of the co-mayors, Gultan Kışanak and Firat Anlı, last week. Cumali Atilla, former district governor of Ankara’s Etimesgut district, began serving in the post of Diyarbakir Metropolitan mayor on Tuesday, the Daily Sabah reported.
Kışanak and Anlı were arrested on allegations of association with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a named terrorist organization in Turkey. Human Rights Watch called the charges “trumped up.”
