Arrests of Turkish Journalists Spur Backlash

By MARC CHAMPION

ISTANBUL—Turkish writers and the country’s president questioned this week’s arrest of several high-profile journalists, amid dwindling support for Turkish prosecutors’ investigation into an alleged secret terrorist organization within the state.

Prosecutors this week formally arrested six journalists and a writer on charges they belonged to the alleged organization, known as Ergenekon, which is accused of attempting to destabilize Turkey and topple its leaders.

Ever since authorities launched the Ergenekon investigation in 2007, Turks have been polarized by the case. Some have seen it as overdue justice against a “deep state” of military and security officials, academics, journalists and others. Other Turks have viewed the probe as a government tool to crush opponents.

Hundreds of defendants have so far been indicted in the case. Nobody has been convicted.

Those charged this week include Ahemet Sik and Nedim Sener, two journalists with records of uncovering human-rights abuses and exposing the deep state—the group they now stand accused of working for.

“Ahmet Sik is a symbol. He is well known,” Orhan Kemal Cengiz, a newspaper columnist who has supported the Ergenekon investigation, said by telephone Wednesday. “He always took correct positions and fought against the deep state. So it was shocking for all of us to see he was implicated in this investigation.”

The newest arrests reignited charges that the government is failing to protect press freedom and has led some to worry over the future development of the rule of law in Turkey, a predominantly Muslim nation often held up as a model democracy for the Middle East.

In a rare criticism of the case from top officials, President Abdullah Gul expressed his “concern” over the arrests in an interview wıth Mr. Sener’s newspaper, Milliyet, on Sunday, describing them as “developments that the public conscience cannot accept.”

“When even President Abdullah Gul goes to the limits of his office to express his concerns, something big is happening,” Jost Lagendijk, another supporter of the Ergenekon case, wrote Wednesday in the pro-government newspaper Today’s Zaman. This week’s arrests had “shattered that trust” in the prosecutors, he wrote.

One of the arrested men, Mr. Sener, received the International Press Institute’s World Press Hero award last year, for his book about the 2007 assassination of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink. In the book, Mr. Sener sought to expose links between the murder and state security forces.

Columnist Mr. Cengiz said he still believes the Ergenekon case is essential to entrench Turkey’s democracy. He noted that unsolved assassinations such as Mr. Dink’s, which plagued Turkey for decades, have all but ceased since the investigation started.

“The prosecutors started to lose their direction and have started to see people who criticize the case as therefore members of Ergenekon themselves. It is very dangerous,” Mr. Cengiz said.

Mr. Sik recently wrote a book about the Ergenekon case, concluding the investigation has disappointed democracy advocates by focusing too broadly and on recent alleged plots, rather than on actual crimes conducted in the past.

The prosecutors’ office said in a statement that none of the journalists had been arrested in connection with their legitimate activity as journalists, and that the judicial process should be allowed to take its course.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday the arrests were a judicial affair and shouldn’t be used to tar the government.

Prosecutors have declined to reveal the evidence based on which they arrested Messrs. Sik and Sener, citing “the confidentiality of the case.” However, transcripts of his interrogation leaked to the media show that questioning centered almost entirely on a book he was planning to publish ahead of national elections on June 12.

“Ahmet Sik is a journalist and can write a book about anyone and anything,” Mr. Sik’s lawyer, Fikret Ilkiz said in an interview, adding that he has advised Mr. Sik to go ahead with publishing. “It is hard to understand how this can be considered a crime.”

According to the interrogation transcript, a copy of Mr. Sik’s forthcoming book was discovered during a raid on the offices of OdaTV, a nationalist website that is critical of the government. Prosecutors allege that OdaTV was a propaganda wing of Ergenekon, and their questions to Mr. Sik suggest they believe he was working with OdaTV to produce the book.

Mr. Ilkiz said he couldn’t confirm news reports that the book would be about an alleged takeover from within of Turkey’s police force by followers of Fetullah Gulen, a U.S.-based imam whose religious group critics say has close ties to the government. Mr. Ilkis said the book features statements by several police chiefs.

—Erkan Oz contributed to this article.

Write to Marc Champion at marc.champion@wsj.com

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