turkey crackdown chronicle

353 results

Mehmet Murat Sabuncu

Police detained Murat Sabuncu, editor-in-chief of the pro-opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, in a raid of the newspaper’s main office in Istanbul on October 31, 2016, alongside at least 11 other staff members and board members of the foundation that publishes it. The Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Istanbul released an official statement soon after the raid, saying…

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Ercan Gün

Ercan Gün, a news editor for Turkish Fox TV, was detained on July 29, 2016 on terrorism charges and for allegedly being involved in a conspiracy to blame the Turkish military for the 2007 murder of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink. Gün was sentenced to 10 years in prison in March 2021.  Police in Istanbul detained…

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Sadık Demir

Police in Turkey’s southeastern province of Şanlıurfa on October 1, 2016, detained Sadık Demir-chairman of the board of Fırat Press Broadcast, which owns Radio Karacadağ. The government on September 30, 2016, had ordered the radio station closed by decree, using emergency powers it assumed after a failed July 2016 military coup, saying the station was…

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Erdoğan Alayumat

A court in Hatay on July 27, 2017, ordered Erdoğan Alayumat, from online newspaper Dihaber, jailed pending trial on charges of “obtaining secret information of the Republic of Turkey for the means of political and military espionage,” his employer reported. Security forces detained Alayumat and his colleague, Nuri Akman, near the Syrian border in the…

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Şerife Oruç

Police detained Oruç, a reporter for the pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency (DİHA), on July 4, 2016, while she was traveling in a car with her cousin and a driver who had picked them up while they were hitchhiking between the southeastern provinces of Diyarbakır and Batman, according to news reports citing DİHA. The reports said…

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Zehra Doğan

A Mardin court in March 2017 convicted and sentenced Zehra Doğan, a reporter for the pro-Kurdish, all-women Jin News Agency (JİNHA), to two years, nine months, and 22 days in prison on charges of "being a member of a [terrorist] organization" and "propagandizing for a [terrorist] organization," according to news reports. An appeals court upheld the…

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Nedim Türfent

Nedim Türfent, a Turkish reporter for the pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency (DİHA), has been detained since 2016. The journalist was sentenced to over eight years in prison, despite several prosecution witnesses recanting their testimonies in court and saying that police forced them to testify against Türfent. Police detained Türfent in the eastern province of Van…

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Ali Ünal

Ali Ünal, a columnist and lead writer for the shuttered Turkish daily Zaman, was arrested shortly after the failed coup of 2016 and later found guilty of “founding and leading an armed terrorist organization.” In late 2018, he was sentenced to 19 years and six months in prison. Police detained Ünal at his house in…

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Mutlu Çölgeçen

Mutlu Çölgeçen, a former news coordinator for the shuttered daily newspaper Millet, is one of several journalists imprisoned after the failed 2016 coup attempt. In 2018, he was found guilty of being a member of a terrorist organization. The Supreme Court of Appeals upheld his conviction in March 2020. Police detained Çölgeçen in Istanbul on…

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Emre Soncan

Emre Soncan is one of several journalists imprisoned after the failed 2016 coup attempt. In 2018, he was found guilty of being a member of a terrorist organization.  On July 24, 2016, Soncan, a former military affairs correspondent for the shuttered daily newspaper Zaman, wrote on Twitter that he had learned that police were at…

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