The police raided the homes and offices of 11 people in Ankara and Istanbul. Among those detained were Nedim Sener, an investigative journalist for the newspaper Milliyet; Yalcin Kucuk, a writer who is a prominent critic of the governing Justice and Development Party; and Ahmet Sik, a journalist and academic who alleges that an Islamic movement associated with Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish-born cleric living in the United States, has infiltrated the country’s security forces.
Mr. Sener and Mr. Sik were defiant as police officers took them into custody at their homes before television cameras. “Whoever touches it gets burned!” Mr. Sik shouted, referring to the Gulen movement. Mr. Sener’s neighbors decorated his Istanbul building with Turkish flags to protest his detention.
Four journalists with an anti-government Web site, OdaTV, were also detained. A few weeks ago, the authorities raided the Web site’s offices and arrested the site’s owner, its news editor and a writer.
The arrests are the latest in a years-old investigation into purported plots to overthrow Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government after his Justice and Development Party came to power in 2002, unnerving the country’s secular elite with its Islamic roots. Dozens of current and former military personnel, as well as intellectuals and politicians, have been arrested in connection with various plots that prosecutors say were conducted under the auspices of a network called Ergenekon.
Leaders of Turkey’s armed forces have denied that any military-led plot existed. Critics of the government say the investigation has become a pretext for punishing opponents of the government.
Mr. Erdogan said Thursday that the case would proceed in accordance with the law. “Regarding today’s detentions; as we’ve always said, these are not things that happen upon our orders,” he said in a televised statement from Ankara. “The only thing I want to say is that these processes should be concluded as soon as possible.”
The head of the Ankara Bar Association, Metin Feyzioglu, called the raids illegal, given what he characterized as a lack of clear allegations. “These search warrants are against the law,” he said in a televised statement in front of Mr. Kucuk’s office in Ankara. “Everyone can be subject to these search warrants based on abstract reasons, without specific accusations,” he said.
The Turkish Journalists Association says 58 journalists in the country have been imprisoned. A United States State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, said last month that the United States had “broad concerns about trends involving intimidation of journalists in Turkey.”
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DAILY NEWS
Turkey slammed by int’l groups over detaining of journalists
“Actions like this have a strong chilling effect on media freedom. It clearly illustrates the need for Turkey to reform its media laws,” Dunja Mijatovic, media representative of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, or OSCE, said in a statement.
“The detained journalists should be immediately released without any conditions,” she said, according to an Agence France-Presse report.
The European Commission is following the recent police actions against journalists with concern, commissioner Stefan Fule said Thursday.
“The commission has, in its progress report [on Turkey], highlighted the high number of court cases against journalists and undue pressure on the media, which undermine freedom of the press in practice. Turkish law does not sufficiently guarantee freedom of expression in line with the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights,” Fule said.
Freedom of expression and freedom of the media are fundamental principles that should be upheld in all modern democracies, Fule said. “As a candidate country, we expect Turkey to implement such core democratic principles and enable varied, pluralistic debate in public space,” he added. “Turkey urgently needs to amend its legal framework to improve the exercise of freedom of the press in practice and in a significant manner.’”
Journalists Nedim Şener and Ahmet Şık were among a group of people detained Thursday after having their homes raided in connection with the alleged Ergenekon coup plot. The incidents following on the heels of the arrests of Soner Yalçın, Barış Terkoğlu and Barış Pehlivan from the dissident online news portal Oda TV.
Media watchdogs
The raids have fueled accusations of a campaign to bully government opponents, drawn U.S. criticism and sparked an outcry over press freedom in EU-aspirant Turkey.
“I call on the Turkish authorities to stop intimidating and threatening journalists,” the OSCE’s Mijatovic said in her statement.
“This unprecedented conduct by the authorities violates basic OSCE media freedom commitments. It targets and suppresses differing and critical voices,” she said.
The International Press Institute, another Vienna-based media watchdog, also expressed its concern about the arrests.
“No journalist should face arrest, charges, imprisonment or any other form of harassment or intimidation for doing their job – which can include expressing critical views,” IPI director Alison Bethel McKenzie said in a statement.
“We urge the authorities to release all of the journalists imprisoned because of their work. A flourishing, diverse, critical media is a cornerstone of any healthy democracy,” she said.
Şener, one of the journalists detained Thursday, is an investigative reporter for daily Milliyet and was named a “World Press Freedom Hero” by IPI last year.
U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Thursday that the United States had concerns about trends in Turkey and would monitor ongoing arrests of journalists there, the Associated Press reported. He urged for “any investigations or prosecutions proceed in a transparent manner.”
“We will continue to engage Turkey and encourage an independent, pluralistic media,” Crowley told reporters. “It is critical to a healthy democracy.”
Reporters Without Borders also condemned the arrests, saying on its website it is appalled by the wave of searches, detentions and arrests of investigative journalists in Istanbul and Ankara, and called for the immediate and unconditional release of the detained journalists in accordance with international law.
“Journalists who have helped to shed light on this [Ergenekon] case are being made to pay for the tension between the government and the secularist and ultra-nationalist opposition,” it said. “We deplore the repeated use of the charge of ‘membership in a terrorist organization’ to go after reporters who are just doing their work at a difficult time of political and ideological rivalry. After a period of reduced tension, we are disturbed to see renewed heavy-handed treatment of journalists who reported facts that do not suit the government.”
ABD: Türkiye’deki gidişattan kaygılıyız
Dışişleri Bakanı Sözcüsü Crowley, “Gazetecilerin gözaltına alınmasıyla Türkiye’deki gidişattan kaygılarımız var. Çok yakından takip edeceğiz” dedi.
Ergenekon soruşturmasında aralarında Nedim Şener ve Ahmet Şık’ın da bulunduğu gazetecilerin gözaltına alınmasına ABD‘den ilk tepki geldi.
Gazeteciler, günlük basın toplantısı düzenleyen ABD Dışişleri Bakanlığı Sözcüsü Philip Crowley’e Türkiye‘deki gözaltıları sordu.
Sözcü Crowley, gözaltıların sistematik olduğunu düşünüp düşünmediği yönündeki soruya “Bu konuda bir yargıda bulunmak zor. Kamuoyunun önünde dile getirdiğimiz gibi Türkiye’deki gidişattan kaygılarımız var. Bu gelişmelerle ilgili olarak Türk yetkililerle temasları sürdürüyoruz. Bu konuları çok yakından takip edeceğiz” sözleriyle yanıt verdi.
Devam eden gelişmeleri izleyeceklerini vurgulayan Crowley, inceleme ya da soruşturmaların şeffaf şekilde ilerlemesi çağrısında bulundu. Crowley, bunun sağlıklı demokrasi için kritik olduğunu belirterek, “Yıllık insan hakları raporumuzda küresel basın özgürlüklerine ilişkin değerlendirmelerimizi sürdüreceğiz” dedi.
ABD Başkanı Baracak Obama’nın Türkiye’deki gazetecilere yönelik yıldırmaların farkında olup olmadığı ve gündeme getirip getirmediğinin sorulması üzerine Crowley, Beyaz Saray‘ı adres gösterdi ve sorunun Obama’ya yöneltilmesini istedi.
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Statements by U.S. Officials
Spokesman PJ Crowley on Detained Journalists in Turkey
Daily Press Briefing, February 16, 2011
QUESTION: I asked on Monday about the journalist who got detained. Do you have anything on that now?
MR. CROWLEY: Well, we are watching this case very closely. I don’t have a particular comment other than to say we do have ongoing concerns about trends regarding treatment of journalists within Turkey. We’ve raised that with the Turkish Government, and we’ll be watching this case very closely.
QUESTION: So you have engaged with Turkish Government so far?
MR. CROWLEY: I don’t know that we have engaged in this particular case, but this is an issue that we have raised with Turkey and will continue to do so.
QUESTION: U.S. Ambassador in Ankara Ricciardone gave a couple of statements on the issue – I have the quotes – and there was a quite strong reaction from Turkish administration saying that nobody should be interfering with the Turkish domestic situation because of ambassador statement.
MR. CROWLEY: Again, obviously, Ambassador Ricciardone – we stand by his statement. But as I say, we do have broad concerns about trends involving intimidation of journalists in Turkey, and we have raised that directly with the Turkish Government and we’ll continue to do so.
QUESTION: Also, AKP — the vice president of ruling party AKP said that ambassadors has limits, so was Ricciardone out of his limits by having such a statement?
MR. CROWLEY: I’m not sure what you mean by limits.
QUESTION: I’m not sure, too. He said ambassadors have limits. So regarding this subject, regarding Ricciardone’s —
MR. CROWLEY: You’re saying that Ambassador Ricciardone used the term “limits”?
QUESTION: No, no, vice president of AKP said —
MR. CROWLEY: Again, it’s not for me to parse the language used by Turkish officials. We stand by the ambassador’s statement.
QUESTION: There is some strong arguments in Turkey that the U.S. approach so far to Turkish Government, strong Turkish Government, kind of appeasement policy to —
MR. CROWLEY: What kind of policy?
QUESTION: Appeasement.
MR. CROWLEY: Appeasement?
QUESTION: Yes, to Turkish Government. Not – there’s my newspaper’s editorial yesterday, so I’m just (inaudible) message what would be your —
MR. CROWLEY: It’s hard for me to put that in context. Turkey is an ally and friend of the United States. But as we’ve made clear, anytime that we think that a friend or ally or adversary has crossed a line and – in terms of respect for universal principles, we will not hesitate to raise our voice. Again, it’s not for me to parse the language used by Turkish officials. We stand by the ambassador’s statement.