Faces of Erdogan’s Purge: Journalists Detained in Turkey

Faces of Erdogan’s Purge: Journalists Detained in Turkey

Turkish journalist Mahir Zeynalov spent this morning tweeting pictures and bios of some of the journalists detained by the Turkish government.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seems to think they have connections to Fehtullah Gülen, who he blames for the coup, or at least that is the excuse for the round up.

https://twitter.com/MahirZeynalov/status/759021471045980160

Erdoğan has blamed the Gülen for the failed coup three weeks ago. He has targeted anyone he believes follows the scholar or sympathizes with him. So far he has shut down 131 media outlets and purged 50,000 people. Authorities have arrested 18,044 people.

But as Natasha Bertrand at Business Insider points out, Erdoğan has a history of targeting the media. The thin-skinned leader cannot tolerate criticism or jokes about him, arresting anyone who commits these crimes and even shutting down outlets.

Here are more of his recent victims as tweeted by Zeynalov (hover your mouse pointer over the image and information on the detained journalist will appear):

And a video report:

The government shuttered “23 radio stations, three news agencies and 15 magazines.” They also detained 47 journalists from the now defunct Zaman newspaper. They shut down that paper in March which they viewed “as the Gulen movement’s flagship media organization. Reuters reported:

“The prosecutors aren’t interested in what individual columnists wrote or said,” said the official, who requested anonymity. “At this point, the reasoning is that prominent employees of Zaman are likely to have intimate knowledge of the Gulen network and as such could benefit the investigation.”

However, the list includes journalists, such as Sahin Alpay, known for their leftist activism who do not share the religious worldview of the Gulenist movement. This has fueled the concerns that the investigation may be turning into a witch-hunt of the president’s political opponents.

The media reported on Monday that arrest warrants had been issued for 42 other journalists, 16 of whom have so far been taken into custody.

Alpay is a former official of Turkey’s left-leaning, secularist main opposition CHP party. The Dogan news agency said police raided his home in Istanbul early on Wednesday and detained him after a 2-1/2-hour search of the property.

The government even demanded Kosovo “punish a prominent journalist over satirical comments he made abut the failed coup.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Enver Hoxhaj called the request “unacceptable.”

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.