Cumhuriyet daily’s Dündar, Gül arrested over report on Syria arms transfer
The editor-in-chief of the Cumhuriyet daily, Can Dündar, and the paper’s Ankara representative Erdem Gül have been arrested on charges of being members of a terror organization, espionage and revealing confidential documents — charges that could see them spend life in prison.
„We have been arrested!“ Dündar tweeted after the 7th Penal Court of Peace ruled to arrest the two men pending trial, complying with prosecutor İrfan Fidan’s request. Dündar and Gül were taken to the Silivri Prison after the court’s decision. „Don’t worry, these are medals of honor for us,“ Dündar was also quoted as saying by Cumhuriyet’s website.
Dündar and Gül’s supporters chanted: „Free press cannot be silenced“ inside the courtroom after court announced its decision, Doğan news agency video footage showed. Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said the decision marked a „black day“ for democracy and freedoms.
CHP İstanbul deputy Mahmut Tanal said the arrests mark a “coup” staged against the press. “It is the massacre of the law to launch an investigation and now rule for the arrest of the two journalists with special orders,” Tanal said, referring to the government’s role in the prosecution of the journalists.
Opposition People’s Democratic Party (HDP) also condemned the arrests in a joint statement by its co-leaders, who said the ruling once again revealed that judicial mechanisms are under the influence of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government.
If tried and found guilty on the charges, the sentence for being a member of a terrorist organization can reach a maximum of 10 years, while that for espionage can be up to 20 years. Revealing confidential government documents carries the highest punishment of all the charges — life imprisonment. Both delivered their defense and a court decision is expected soon.
The Platform for Independent Journalism (P24) immediately condemned the court decision as a severe blow to freedom of press in Turkey. “Is there still anyone who would say Turkey media freedom?” it asked on its Twitter account.
The International Press Institute (IPI) said “journalism was arrested,” after the court’s decision. IPI’s Turkish National ComMİTtee said in a press statement on Thursday that it is the job of journalists to obtain and publish documents that would serve the public interest. “As journalists, we stand in solidarity with Dündar and Gül, who just performed journalism,” the statement said.
Stating that Turkey, which uses charges such as terrorism, membership in a criminal network and espionage while prosecuting journalists, witnessed yet another black day with respect to democracy and press freedom, the statement called on Turkish authorities to immediately carry out reforms that would secure press freedom in the country.
Dündar and Gül arrived at İstanbul Courthouse on Thursday morning to testify as part of a terrorism investigation. The investigation was launched after Cumhuriyet published photos in May of weapons which it said were transferred to Syria in trucks operated by the National Intelligence Organization (MİT).
“We came here to defend journalism. We came here to defend the right of the public to obtain the news and their right to know if their government is feeding them lies. We came here to show and to prove that governments cannot engage in illegal activity and defend this,” Dündar told the press outside the courthouse.
The articles, published on the daily’s front page, reported that the trucks in question were intercepted by gendarmes on two occasions in January 2014 after prosecutors received tip-offs 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, insisted that the trucks were carrying aid to Syrian Turkmens and branded their interception as an act of “treason” and “espionage.”
Dündar continued, “First the government responded saying: ‘No there is nothing of the sort. This is aid. Then it was revealed that these were guns. Then they said that these were going to the Turkmens. Then the present deputy prime minister, Tuğrul Türkeş said, ‘I swear to God they [the trucks] were not going to the Turkmens.‘ … Then later the Turkmens said they did not receive any arms.”
“The president is acting as if this is a personal lawsuit, saying I will be following this, and I will not let it go. He, personally, is the complainant. I do not know why the president alone is the complainant. This secret is a secret that belongs to the state, it is not a secret that belongs to him personally.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan personally sued Dündar and is requesting that he be given a life sentence, an aggravated life sentence and an additional 42-year term in prison on charges related to a variety of crimes, ranging from espionage to attempting to topple the government and exposing secret information.
For the coverage of the MİT trucks, President Erdoğan has publicly targeted Dündar, saying: „The individual who has reported this as an exclusive story will pay a heavy price for this,“ in a television interview with state broadcaster TRT late in June.
“We are being charged with being spies, the president is saying that we are traitors to the state. We are not spies, we are not traitors, we are not heroes; we are journalists,” Dündar added outside the courthouse.
“There is a crime that has been committed by the state that they are trying to cover up,” he said, adding that the state is understandably in panic over the reporting done by the paper for it has the potential to reach an international audience and show the world the crimes committed by the Turkish state.
Following the Cumhuriyet report, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said it is “none of anybody’s business” what the trucks contained. Speaking in a live broadcast on the Habertürk news station in May, Davutoğlu said, “This is a blatant act of espionage.”
After the publication of video stills as well as video footage, Erdoğan lashed out at Cumhuriyet and Dündar for publishing the evidence and publicly vowed that Dündar would “pay a heavy price” for his report.
According to the report, the trucks were carrying six steel containers which contained a total of 1,000 artillery shells, 50,000 machine gun rounds, 30,000 heavy machine gun rounds and 1,000 mortar shells. All of this is registered in the prosecutor’s file on the MİT truck case, the report said.
The photos, published on the daily’s front page in late May, show steel 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.
Earlier this month, Cumhuriyet was awarded the prestigious Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Prize for its contribution to defending press freedom.
There was an outpour of support for the veteran journalists from their colleagues and politicians. Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputies Sezgin Tanrıkulu, Mahmut Tanal, Barış Yarkadaş, Onursal Adıgüzel, Ali Şeker and Gürsel Tekin were among the many CHP representatives that came to the courthouse to show their solidarity; People’s Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Garo Paylan was also present. Journalist Hasan Cemal, writer Pelin Batu and Confederation of Revolutionary Workers‘ Unions (DİSK) Secretary-General Arzu Çerkezoğlu also came to the courthouse to stand by Dündar and Erdem.
The hashtag #CanDündarErdemGülYalnızDeğildir (Can DündarErdemGülarenotalone) began trending on Twitter after the two were referred for arrest. The Turkish Journalists‘ Association (TGC) and Journalists Union of Turkey (TGS) also gave a written statement saying that the Cumhuriyet daily performed its duty of informing the public and that it is not the job of journalists to protect the government.
A 2014 report by Human Rights Watch warned that under Erdogan’s rule Turkey has seen the erosion of human rights via a crackdown on media freedom, dissent and a weakening of the rule of law.
Many journalists in the country are facing harsh prison terms for exposing corruption in the government and surveillance by the Turkish state.
Egdogan’s regime has also attempted to silence social media by blocking YouTube and Twitter on a number of occasions.
