Turkey arrests two journalists on terrorism charges

Two renowned journalists in Turkey have been arrested on charges of espionage for their reports accusing the state intelligence agency of smuggling weapons to rebels in Syria.

A version of this article appears in print on November 28, 2015 of The Himalayan Times. As to whether the trucks were carrying arms: “So what if they were, so what if they weren’t?” he said.

The opposition daily had reported that Turkish security forces in January 2014 intercepted a convoy of trucks near the Syrian border and discovered boxes of what it described as weapons and ammunition to be sent to rebels fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Before the court hearing on Thursday, the secretary general of Reporters Without Borders, Christophe Deloire, said in a statement, “If both of these journalists are imprisoned, it’s going to be added signs the Turkish authorities are willing to use systems worthy of a bygone era to be able to curb independent journalism in Turkey”.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said this week that the trucks were “carrying aid to our Bayirbucak Turkmen, “referring to a Turkic tribe backed by Turkey that’s resident in northern Syria, where civil war has been raging for four years”.

Cumhuriyet was awarded the media watchdog’s 2015 Press Freedom Prize just last week, with Dundar travelling to Strasbourg to receive the award.

“All opposition press organizations that are abiding by the ethics of journalism and trying to do their journalism are under threat and under attack”, Figen Yuksekdag with the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party was quoted.

The U.S State Department stated that officials are “troubled” by the arrest and jailing of Can Dundar and Erdem Gul.

Turkey researcher Andrew Gardner of the human rights group Amnesty International says the latest arrests are part of an increasing crackdown on dissenting media.

In the capital Ankara, about 1,000 people including MPs gathered for a protest over the arrests and police fired pepper gas at the crowd as they sought to march.

Can Dundar and Erdem Gul face life imprisonment if found guilty. Dundar was quoted at a court appearance stating that he and Gul are neither spies, nor terrorists, nor traitors.

European and Turkish officials hope EU leaders and Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will sign a deal to ease the migrant crisis on Sunday.

“Journalists can not be spies because journalists do not hide but reveal information for the good of the public”, he said.