Turkey detains 2 Rudaw journalists covering migrant crisis in Edirne
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Four journalists, including a Rudaw reporter and cameraman, were detained by Turkish authorities in Edirne on Saturday while covering the migrant crisis unfolding near Turkey’s border with Greece and Bulgaria.
Press freedoms monitor Reporters Without Borders (RSF) named Rudaw Turkish reporter Rawin Sterk and videographer Mehmet Sirin Akgun, as well as Mesopotamian News Agency (Mezopotamya Ajansi) correspondents Idris Sayilgan and Naci Kaya, as those detained.
The journalists were detained near the Pazarkule crossing on the Turkey-Greece border.
Hundreds of migrants and refugees from across the Middle East and Central Asia have made a break for Turkey’s borders with Europe in recent days.
On February 28, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lifted the border restrictions he had agreed with European powers in 2016.
Ankara fears another wave of refugees escaping the Syrian regime offensive in Idlib will soon arrive in Turkey, which already hosts 3.6 million displaced Syrians.
It is also possible that Erdogan lifted migration restrictions to pressure European powers to support his new offensive against the Syrian regime.
According to a statement from Mesopotamian News Agency, Sayilgan and Kaya were detained while filming at the Pazarkule border crossing and taken to Edirne Central Gendarmerie Command.
Sayilgan and Kaya, who have been held in police custody since 15:00 local time on February 29, said they were detained for filming “in a forbidden area”.
Rudaw Media Network is yet to release a statement about the detention of Sterk and Akgun. Turkish authorities have not offered an explanation.
RSF said it has received several complaints about the treatment of journalists working in the border area and about the “double-standard attitude towards the media” among Turkish security forces.
“The journalist can neither be a warring party nor be responsible for regional conflicts and humanitarian crises. We want journalists not to be blocked and those who are in custody to be released #Pazarkule,” said Erol Onderoglu, an RSF representative in Turkey.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) also called for the immediate release of the journalists.
“The Mesopotamian News Agency and the Rudaw reporters working at the Edirne border gate were detained,” the HDP tweeted on Sunday.
“The government thinks that it will make Idlib and the refugee tragedy invisible by detaining journalists. The right of people to receive news cannot be prevented, journalists must be released immediately,” it added.
At least five journalists have been detained in Turkey in the past week.
Alptekin Dursunoglu, the editor-in-chief of the Near East News, was taken into custody on Saturday.
Three reporters from the Russian news agency Sputnik Turkey were also detained in Ankara on Saturday, allegedly for producing a story titled Antioch: The ‘Stolen Province’.
Mahir Boztepe, Sputnik Turkey’s editor-in-chief, was arrested on Sunday after taking responsibility for the article. They have all since been released by prosecutors.
The frequent arrest and prosecution of journalists in Turkey following the 2016 attempted coup has been criticized by human rights organizations. RSF claims Turkey is the “world’s biggest jailer of professional journalists.”