Turkish police have detained the editor and several writers of opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet after the attempted coup in July.
Cumhuriyet having had published its first issue on 7 May 1924 is Turkey’s oldest secular paper.
On 31 October 2016, the headline of the newspaper read: “Coup against opposition.” The story was about the suspension of thousands of civil servants under emergency rule. Only hours afterwards, the editor and several writers were detained and arrest warrants issued for over a dozen of the paper’s executives.
Many Turkish citizens are concerned that the Turkish government is using the emergency state ruling to silence the opposition. Following the police operation to the Cumhuriyet’s head office, thousands of people gathered to protest the detentions.
Since the attempted coup, approximately 110,000 people have been sacked or suspended and 37,000 arrested including academics, teachers and health workers. The government argues that there is a vast quantity of members of Gulenist Terror Organisation (Fethullahci Teror Orgutu in Turkish, FETO in short) hence a purge is needed.
We as the LLI, disapprove the detentions and from a legal point of view we find the operation against Cumhuriyet, one of the few remaining opposing newspapers unlawful. The detention of Cumhuriyet journalists is a violation against freedom of press, democracy and human rights.
We urge the Turkish government to respect the democratic rights and freedom of expression.
