ANKARA, Turkey – The arrest and trial of 46 pro-Kurdish journalists in Turkey has sounded alarm bells in the Kurdish community, with the Ozgur Gundem newspaper calling it “political genocide” to silence the Kurds and other journalists seeking refuge abroad for fear of arrest.
Ozgur Gundem said in a written statement that the mass arrest of journalists is part of an attempt by Turkey to gag the voice of the country's Kurdish community.
The trial comes as the newspaper marks the 19th anniversary of suspicious and deadly bomb attacks on its offices, which were investigated but never concluded by the state. One journalist, 32-year-old Ersin Yildiz, was killed in the attack and 23 people were wounded.
After the case was taken to the European Court of Human Rights, Turkey was found guilty of violating the right to freedom of expression and ordered to pay a large fine.
The 46 arrested journalists work for Ozgur Gundem, Dicle News Agency, Azadiya Welat newspaper, Democratic Modernity Magazine and Firat Distribution Media Company.
They were arrested in the so-called “KCK press operation” on December 21, 2011 on charges of membership in the group, which like the PKK is outlawed in Turkey.
The defendants were in jail for about nine months before they were brought to court for the first time on September 10, 2012. The 800-page indictment by prosecutors charges that articles written by the journalists were “aimed at degrading the Turkish state” and “tarnishing its image.”
Journalist Necati Abay, the Europe representative of Platform for Solidarity with Jailed Journalists, told Rudaw he was forced to take refuge in Germany for fear of being rearrested for the fourth time and dying in jail.
“Journalism is carried out under the pressure of state terrorism in Turkey,” Abay charged.
He said there are 65 journalists in Turkish jails today, making Turkey the country with the largest number of imprisoned journalists. Censorship has become a state policy, in law and in practice, and thousands of journalists have been brought to court,” he said.
“Journalists are given prison sentences and sometimes life sentences. All those realities show that journalism is under the threat of the state terrorism in Turkey,” Abay added.
He said he was attending a conference in Europe when he heard that a Turkish court had sentenced him to up to 15 years in jail.
“I decided not to return to Turkey. I had been arrested three times before. I am 58 years old now and do not want to die in a prison,” he said.
Abay, who was the editor of Atilim newspaper in Turkey, now lives in a refugee camp in Germany and complains that camp conditions are difficult.
