Two comments:Messages of support pour in for Dündar over possible life sentence
Cumhuriyet Editor-in-Chief Can Dündar -- for whom President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is demanding a life sentence, an aggravated life sentence and an additional 42-year term of imprisonment for publishing video footage of what the daily said were arms being transferred to Syria on trucks operated by the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) -- has been receiving more and more support both from Turkey and overseas.
Erdoğan filed a criminal complaint against Dündar on Tuesday after prosecutors launched a probe investigating the newspaper and Dündar for the publication. The footage released by Cumhuriyet on Friday showed gendarmerie officers and police officers opening crates on the back of trucks that contained what the daily said were weapons and ammunition sent to Syria in January 2014. The footage contradicts the government's earlier claim that the trucks were only carrying humanitarian aid to Turkmens in the war-torn country.
The prosecutor has requested the maximum penalty of an aggravated life sentence, one life sentence and an additional 42 years in jail, Cumhuriyet said.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has harshly criticized Turkey over the criminal investigation started against the Cumhuriyet daily and its editor-in-chief for the daily's report on Syria-bound trucks carrying arms from Turkey, stating that the probe targeting the daily should be dropped immediately.
Calling the issue a matter of public interest, the HRW stated: “It is the latest assault on media that challenges the government, days before Turkey's June 7, 2015 general election. The investigation should be dropped immediately.”
“Cumhuriyet and Can Dündar should not be facing a criminal investigation for doing their job of researching and reporting the news,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The criminal investigation should be dropped and Turkey's political leaders should stop threatening journalists.”
The HRW stated that the incident has raised serious questions about the “murky dimensions of Turkey's involvement with the conflict in Syria and the Turkish government's effort to prevent any legal or journalistic scrutiny of Turkish intelligence operations.”
“Threatening the Cumhuriyet newspaper and its editor with charges like spying for reporting on alleged arms transfers comes just weeks after four prosecutors were jailed for investigating the incident,” Sinclair-Webb said. “The criminal investigation and threats against the newspaper are part of an alarming pattern of the government clamping down on any scrutiny of its conduct.”
IPI criticizes ‘disturbing lack of respect' for media freedom, democracy in Turkey
One of the leading international press freedom watchdogs, the International Press Institute (IPI), also released a written statement about the targeting of Cumhuriyet and its chief editor on Tuesday, saying the series of attacks by Erdoğan and his supporters against media critical of the government ahead of the upcoming parliamentary election is very alarming.
Mentioning the fact that Erdoğan publicly threatened Dündar, the IPI statement said: “Erdoğan's attack on Dündar came on the heels of efforts by authorities to block opposition media from broadcasting via state-owned resources and a specious attack by Erdoğan on the newspaper Hürriyet over a report on the death sentence handed to deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi -- a report that Erdoğan claimed constituted a threat on his life.”
IPI Director of Advocacy and Communications Steven M. Ellis said there is a “disturbing lack of respect for the principles of media freedom and democracy” ahead of this Sunday's election.
“Reporting that apparently shows a politician saying one thing and then doing another is absolutely in the public interest, and the Turkish public has a right to know what their leaders are doing in their name, especially as they go to the polls,” Ellis said. “If Turkey's voters can't have the information they need to hold their elected leaders accountable, if they aren't allowed make an informed decision about their future, then what's the point of holding an election?”
The IPI statement also included Dündar's Tuesday comment on Erdoğan's threats. Dündar had said in a tweet on Tuesday: "We are journalists, not civil servants. Our duty is not to hide the dirty secrets of the state but to hold it accountable on behalf of the people.”
Highlighting the IPI Special Report “Democracy at Risk,” published in March, the IPI statement continued by saying that Turkey has seen a continuing deterioration of media freedom in recent years, particularly ahead of recent elections. The report highlights then-Prime Minister Erdoğan's role -- first as prime minister then as president -- in many of the major threats to media freedom, including economic pressure on media outlets, the promotion of a toxic political climate and manipulation of the legal framework.
Domestic support for Dündar
Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has expressed his support for Dündar, saying, “No one can intimidate Dündar and his friends.”
Speaking to reporters at the Adana airport before his flight to İstanbul on Tuesday evening, Kılıçdaroğlu said: “Dündar just did his job. I heartily congratulate him.”
CHP İzmir deputy Erdal Aksünger also spoke up for Dündar in a statement on Wednesday, saying such oppression and unlawful deeds were not even seen during the military coup periods in Turkey. Aksünger said those who commit a crime should be punished, not those who exposed the crime and brought it to the public's attention.
Pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) parliamentary group deputy chairman İdris Baluken, who attended his party's campaign rallies in Adana province on Wednesday, said Erdoğan's threat to Dündar clearly shows there is no longer media freedom or an independent judiciary in the country. Emphasizing that the judiciary is under the influence of the political administration, Baluken said independent media outlets and journalists are being targeted via government-initiated operations.
HDP Co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş said Erdoğan's threats and the complaint targeting Dündar are very serious, adding the threat not only targets Dündar, but all journalists in Turkey.
The Çukurova Journalists' Community (ÇGC) also expressed its concern over the increasing attacks on journalism and members of the press in Turkey, stating journalists were not subjected to such extreme attacks even during the Sept. 12, 1980 coup era.
In its statement released on Wednesday, the ÇGC stated considering that a journalist was openly threatened by the president, no one can argue there is still democracy and freedom of the press in the country. The ÇGC also said no one will be able to restrict people's right to information regardless of the pressure, violence or threats journalists are currently exposed to by the government.
Press Council members visit Cumhuriyet headquarters to show solidarity
The Press Council, an independent journalism foundation in Turkey, announced on Wednesday it is fully in support of Dündar.
Visiting the headquarters of the Cumhuriyet daily on Wednesday along with other members of the Press Council, Press Council President Pınar Türenç said, “If it is necessary to pay the price, we are ready to pay this price together.”
Türenç told Dündar that they had come to congratulate him for the example of good journalism Dündar provided by exposing the images of arms in the MİT trucks. “We are in full solidarity. We are powerful. The whole world is watching us. They are all aware of what is going on here.”
In response, Dündar said the whole world learned about the issue after the Cumhuriyet daily published the report, adding that the more journalists remain silent, the more they are exposed to pressure.
World-renowned Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic, Slavoj Žižek, also expressed his support for Dündar in an interview with Sendika.org on Wednesday. He stated in his message that Dündar is the link at the end of the chain of real journalists such as Julian Assange, Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden, all who represent “real journalism for people and humanity that is called ‘spying'.”
“Progressive intellectuals and people of the world must stand behind this hero type [Dündar],” he added.
The trucks in question were intercepted by gendarmes on two occasions in January 2014 after prosecutors received tips that they were illegally carrying arms to Syria. There have been allegations that the arms were going to extremist groups fighting against the Syrian regime. Ankara, on the other hand, has insisted that the trucks were carrying aid to Syrian Turkmens and branded their interception an act of "treason" and "espionage."
The photos in question, taken from the video footage and published on the daily's front page, show containers filled with mortar shells and ammunition underneath boxes of medicine. The daily also published a video showing the containers on trucks being opened and searched by gendarmes.
Cumhuriyet said the trucks' cargo included 1,000 shells, 1,000 mortar shells, 50,000 machine gun bullets and 30,000 heavy weapons bullets.
1. It is well known that Turkey has sponsored ISIS and other extremists, this is just one in a long line of Turkish support for those groups.
2. Glad to see Erdogan is carrying out his plans of turning Turkey into his personal fiefdom.
