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Erdogan Construction Companies cannot keep up building Jails, Istanbul governor and ex-police chief way to jail

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Former Istanbul governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu (R) is giving a press statement with Hüseyin Çapkın, former police chief, on April 30, 2013. (Photo by Sabah daily newspaper)

A court in Turkey has given jail terms to a former governor of Istanbul and an ex-police commissioner over affiliation to the movement of the US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the Ankara government accuses of having masterminded the July 2016 coup attempt.

A judicial source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Saturday that Istanbul’s 30th Heavy Criminal Court had sentenced former governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu to three years, one month and 15 days in prison, while ex-police commissioner Hüseyin Çapkın got two years and one month in jail.

Mutlu denied any links to the Gulen movement, and strongly rejected all charges.

“Everything about me has been analyzed. It has been seen that I am transparent. I have never had a relationship with this [Gulen] movement. For my whole life, I have adhered to the constitution and the law. There is no tangible evidence in the indictment in relation to [the] Gulen movement,” he said.

Mutlu was arrested on August 5, 2016 along with nine other suspects, shortly after the botched putsch.

Çapkın, who was arrested on September 3, 2016, has also dismissed the charges brought against him.

“I’m not a part of such an organization. I’ve never received help from [such] an organization during my career. I’ve never sent my children to any schools belonging to this group,” he said.

During the botched putsch, a faction of the Turkish military declared that it had seized control of the country and the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was no more in charge. The attempt was, however, suppressed a few hours later.

Ankara has accused Gulen of having orchestrated the coup. The opposition figure is also accused of being behind a long-running campaign to topple the government via infiltrating the country’s institutions, particularly the army, police and the judiciary.

Additionally, the Ankara government has outlawed his movement, and has branded it as the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).

Gulen has denounced the “despicable putsch” and reiterated that he had no role in it.

The 76-year-old cleric has called on Ankara to end its “witch hunt” of his followers, a move he said is aimed at “weeding out anyone it deems disloyal to President Erdogan and his regime.”

Hamshin Armenian activists released from Turkish jail

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Political activists Nurcan Vayiç Aksu and Cemil Aksu —both of Armenian origin—were released from a Turkish prison on Friday, reported.

Political activist Nurcan Vayic Aksu was taken into police custody on Oct. 19 after a house raid. Her husband, journalist and environmental activist Cemil Aksu, was arrested a few days later in the city of Artvin, for supposedly “praising crime and criminals” in his social media posts.

According to reports, Vayic is a human rights activist and a member of the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP). Aksu is the local co-chair of the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and one of the editors of the Gor-Hemshin cultural magazine.

The couple is from the town of Hopa in Artvin, commonly known as the Hemshin (Hamshen) region, about 12 miles from the Georgian border. Both have been critical of the Turkish government, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Upon being released, the couple posted photos on social media with their eight-year-old child Arev, who was being taken care of by his aunt while the two were imprisoned

Turkey Sends CHP Deputy Berberoğlu To Jail Over Story On MİT Trucks Carrying Weapons To Syria

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Over Story On MİT Trucks Carrying Weapons To SyriaA high criminal court in İstanbul on Wednesday handed down a prison sentence of 25 years to main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Enis Berberoğlu over a report on for ‘leaking state secrets’ in the Syria-bound National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks case. Former journalist and CHP deputy Berberoğlu was sent to prison immediately after the ruling was announced.

The decision was made by the İstanbul 14th High Criminal Court. Berberoğlu was convicted of revealing state information that was supposed to remain secret for the purpose of political and military spying. Berberoğlu, who became the first CHP lawmaker to be handed prison time, was accused of providing daily Cumhuriyet with video purporting to show Turkey’s intelligence agency trucking weapons to Syria.

Cumhuriyet daily had reported in May 2015 that  trucks allegedly owned by the National Intelligence Agency (MİT) were found to contain weapons and ammunition that were headed for Syria when they were stopped and searched in southern Turkey in early 2014.

When the MİT truck story first broke in 2015, it produced a political firestorm in Turkey about the role of the Turkish spy agency in arming rebel factions in Syria and prompted an investigation into Cumhuriyet daily journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, who published the report.

They were first jailed while facing trial on spy charges for publishing footage purporting to show the MİT transporting weapons to Syria in 2014. Later, the two journalists were released pending trial.

When Dündar later published a book titled “We Are Arrested,” he mapped out the details of the news story on May 27, 2015, saying that a leftist lawmaker brought the information to him. Upon that new revelation, the İstanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office launched a new investigation and examined Dündar’s phone calls during the days leading up to the publication of the story.

The prosecutor’s office detected a phone conversation between CHP deputy Berberoğlu and Dündar on May 27. A new indictment was drafted for Berberoğlu.

The Turkish government has accused followers of the Gülen movement in the judiciary and security institutions of illegally ordering the search, claiming that the trucks were carrying “humanitarian aid to Turkmens” in Syria.

The court first gave a life sentence to Berberoğlu on charges of ‘revealing the information of the state that should stay secret for the purposes of political and military spying.’ But the court subsequently reduced the sentence to 25 years. The court also said the lawmaker would be stripped of his political rights following the announcement of the decision.

In his first remarks after the ruling, Berberoğlu said those who created such a victimization should be ashamed of themselves. Berberoğlu, who was present at the hearing, was taken to the police station on the court premises to be imprisoned in İstanbul’s Maltepe district.

Following the court’s decision, it was reported that the CHP held an emergency meeting, after which party Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is expected to make an official statement. Meanwhile, the CHP deputies quit a plenary session in parliament to protest Berberoğlu’s arrest.

After the meeting the CHP made a call on Wednesday to take to the streets in Ankara on Thursday to protest the arrest of Enis Berberoğlu. Media reports said the CHP would launch a march from the capital city Ankara to İstanbul.

Speaking at a press conference at the party’s headquarters, CHP head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu stated that he would be in Ankara’s Güvenpark at 11:00 a.m. with a banner in his hand reading “justice.”

“We will start our march in Güvenpark at 11 a.m. tomorrow,” Kılıçdaroğlu said. “We want justice,” he said. “Until democracy and justice comes to this country.” Kılıçdaroğlu also stressed that those who ordered the arrest of Berberoğlu will be trapped under that decision,

“[Berberoğlu] has been sentenced to 25 years in prison without any evidence. What kind of a mentality or law is that? We never accept that. Those who made that decision will be trapped under it,” Kılıçdaroğlu told reporters at the party’s headquarters.

“We living a process that the real criminals are not put on trial but the innocent are tried and jailed,” he added.

“The imprisonment of our lawmaker is a bitter example showing that the judiciary is under the complete control of the executive organ,” CHP deputy chairman Engin Altay also told reporters outside İstanbul’s Çağlayan courthouse.

“If judges make their decisions thinking ‘how can I please the dictator, how will my rulings make the dictator look at me sympathetically to the point that the dictator advances me [in my career]?’ then God damn such justice. This decision is a move to intimidate everyone who is not happy about the AKP. It is also a move to intimidate a society that says ‘let democracy march,’” Altay said.

Making a statement at the İstanbul Courthouse, CHP deputy Barış Yarkadaş said Berberoğlu had given a short speech after the court announced its ruling.

“What we have gone through is like a cartoon. We are like the actors in that play. We are in a comedy. Those who gave this sentence to me should know I can go to jail, I can get out of jail, I can serve my sentence, do it for my homeland. May our homeland live long. I will continue my judicial struggle. I will get out of jail in a short time, but those who gave me this sentence will be convicted in the eyes of history,” Yarkadaş quoted Berberoğlu as saying.
In the meantime, CHP deputies left a parliamentary session on Wednesday in protest of Berberoğlu’s arrest.

Cumhuriyet’s Ankara bureau chief, Erdem Gül, was also present at the hearing on Wednesday, while the newspaper’s former editor-in-chief, Can Dündar, did not attend as he left for Germany last year. “It is a decision to obstruct journalism,” Gül told reporters outside the court.

The court ruled to separate Berberoğlu’s file from that of Dündar and Gül, who are accused of ‘intentionally and willfully aiding an armed terror group.’ The court, which did not render a verdict for Gül and Dündar, saying their trials would continue.

Berberoğlu is a former journalist, who started his career at business daily Dünya in 1981. In his long journalism career, Berberoğlu also worked for Cumhuriyet, CNN Türk and Radikal. He also served as Hürriyet daily’s editor-in-chief from 2009 to 2014.  Berberoğlu was elected to the CHP caucus during an extraordinary meeting on Sept. 5-6, 2014. He was subsequently appointed as the party’s vice-chairman responsible for relations with the media on Sept. 14, 2014, by Kılıçdaroğlu.

Turkey is the leading jailer of journalists in the world. The Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) has documented that 265 journalists are now in jails as of June 14, most in pre-trial detention languishing in notorious Turkish prisons without even a conviction. Of those in Turkish prisons, 242 are arrested pending trial, only 23 journalists remain convicted and serving time in Turkish prisons. An outstanding detention warrants remain for 105 journalists who live in exile or remain at large in Turkey.

Detaining tens of thousands of people over alleged links to the movement, the government also closed down more than 180 media outlets after the coup attempt. (SCF with turkishminute.com) June 14, 2017

Turkish columnist sentenced to 11 months in jail over Erdogan cartoon

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Turkish actor and columnist at Sol newspaper, Orhan Aydın was given suspended prison sentence of 11 months and 20 days for a cartoon he shared on social media.
An Istanbul court handed down the verdict on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday, Turkish Minute reports.
Aydın’s sharing of a drawing by cartoonist Carlos Latuff on Erdogan’s trip to Cuba was among the evidence of insult.

Women Day: 65 Palestinian women, including 12 minors, in Israel jail, rights group says

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The Israeli regime is holding 65 Palestinian women, including 12 minors, “under dire conditions” in its jails, a rights group says.

The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said in a statement on Tuesday, the eve of the International Women’s Day, that the female prisoners were being held in HaSharon and Damon jails, whose prison cells are unbearably cold in winter and hot in summer.

The rights group said the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) imposes restrictions on the provision of clothes, bed sheets and shoes.

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said in a statement on Tuesday, “Palestinian women continue to suffer severe psychological, physical, and emotional abuse and endure grave acts of oppression, violence, and hardship at the hands of Israel and its unbridled violations.”

Ashrawi said some 15,000 Palestinian women and girls have been by Israel since 1967.

Amina al-Tawil, the spokeswoman of the Palestinian Prisoners Center for Studies, said in a statement on March 4 that female Palestinian prisoners in HaSharon and Damon were facing harsh conditions and their living conditions “worsen day by day.”

She added that many of the female Palestinian prisoners lacked the “basics of human life,” while prison officials “ban them from even simple rights and from continuing their studies.”

source: http://presstv.com/Detail/2017/03/08/513528/Israel-female-Palestinian-prisoners

International press organizations call for release of jailed journalists in Turkey

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International press organizations have called for the release of jailed journalists in Turkey in a meeting they held at the Turkish Journalists’ Association’s (TGC) headquarters in Istanbul’s Çağlayan district, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

TGC, the International Press Institute (IPI), Article 19, Swedish PEN, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Association of European Journalists (AEJ) joined the meeting, as well as a number of journalists.

The organizations have called for the release of jailed journalists “without any condition.”

TGC head Turgay Olcayto, at the meeting, said journalists have been struggling since the foundation of the Turkish Republic, but “there was not any distressful era like this one,” noting that a total of 145 journalists were currently in prison in Turkey.

“Among them, there are those who have only engaged in journalistic activities. We want to visit them as a trade body. We’ve never had the opportunity to visit any of our friends until now,” Olcayto said, adding that “the opportunity is not given to them.”

“Journalists and televisions are under massive pressure and the people do not have the right to getting information. Despite this fact, the journalists consisting of youth in Turkey continue their works in difficulty and try to do their best even though they become unemployed. We are not losing our hope,” he said.

Steven Ellis, who coordinates IPI’s advocacy and communication activities, said they joined the meeting “as the press organizations that are concerned about the future of freedom of expression in Turkey.”

“The journalists are kept in jail in a completely unlawful way. It’s an unacceptable situation for a country that is expected to respect all democratic processes. Bringing media freedom under pressure will not be limited to that profession only. Those who don’t respect human rights and democratic values cannot be partners that you can jointly act,” he said, while IPI’s Sandy Bremmer noted that “it’s unacceptable for the government to bring the society and the journalists under pressure.”

Bremmer also mentioned journalist Kadri Gürsel, who has been in jail for 116 days, saying that Gürsel was “loyal to the basic principles of journalism.”

“I’ve had a chance to meet Kadri Gürsel before. I’ve known him as a person who is loyal to the basic principles of journalism. That loyalty was one of his traits that affected me. No journalist can be subjected to illegitimate treatment because of the work they do. The duty that awaits the international society is to react. It’s their duty to stand against unlawful treatment. We are here to bring light to the prices the journalists pay. Those in jail only ask for one thing; they want journalism to be carried out freely,” she added.

“The charges which are far from solid evidence harm the trustworthiness of judiciary,” said Georgia Nash from Article 19.

“According to the government, the journalists are terrorists, but they only show their articles as evidence. We demand the release of journalists without any conditions,” he said.

Also speaking at the event, AEJ head Otmar Lahodynsky said Europe “has been silent on the events that are unfolding in Turkey,” adding that the arrest of Die Welt’s correspondent Deniz Yücel is a move to “tease international journalists.”

“The state of emergency cannot be put as a reason for violation of international agreements,” he said, referring to the state of emergency declared in Turkey after the July 2016 failed coup attempt.

Turkey’s Kurdish party leader Demirtas given 5-month jail sentence

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ANKARA,— A Turkish court on Tuesday ordered the co-leader of the Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas to serve five months in jail, in the latest legal blow to the politician.

Demirtas has been held in jail since November on charges of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and making terror propaganda on their behalf.

If found guilty in that case, he risks up to 142 years in jail.

In a separate case, a court in the eastern city of Dogubayazit convicted Demirtas of denigrating the Turkish state and its institutions and sentenced him to five months in jail, state media said.

Demirtas is currently being held at a prison in Edirne, in northwest Turkey, far from the southeastern heartland of the Kurdish movement.

In a separate development, Turkish authorities on Tuesday stripped the other co-leader of the HDP, Figen Yuksekdag, who is also held in jail, of her parliamentary seat.

The move was based on a 2013 conviction for “terror propaganda” which was validated by the top court of appeals in 2016.

According to the Anadolu news agency, the validated conviction was read out by the deputy speaker in the plenary session, which is enough for an MP to lose their seat.

The move means that the number of HDP MPs in the Turkish parliament has now fallen to 58, Anadolu said.

Demirtas and Yuksekdag are among a dozen HDP MPs being held in prison ahead of trial on charges of links with the PKK after being detained last year.

Thousands of officials from the HDP and dozens of lawmaker have been detained since 2015.

The government accuses the HDP of having links to the PKK, a charge that the HDP denies.

The European Union has expressed anger over their detention, calling on Turkey to abide by its obligations under the rule of law.

HDP MP Ahmet Yildirim said that the decision over Yuksekdag “violated the Turkish constitution”, asking why the move did not come immediately after the verdict was approved by the appeals court five months ago.

The PKK took up arms in 1984 against the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to push for greater autonomy for the Kurdish minority who make up around 22.5 million of the country’s 79-million population.

A large Kurdish community in Turkey and worldwide openly sympathise with PKK rebels and Abdullah Ocalan, who founded the PKK group in 1974, and has a high symbolic value for most Kurds in Turkey and worldwide according to observers.

Source: http://ekurd.net/turkey-kurdish-demirtas-sentence-2017-02-22

Life in Turkey, Kurd leaders to Jail house, Turk generals to court house Erdogan on vacation

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HDP co-chair Yüksekdağ loses seat in parliament

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Figen Yüksekdağ, who has been in jail for three months on terror charges, has lost her parliamentary status for a prison sentence she received in a previous case. 

Deputy Parliamentary Speaker Ayşenur Bahçekapılı read out a Prime Ministry motion at the start of the parliamentary session on Feb. 21, regarding Yüksekdağ’s sentencing on “terror propaganda” on Nov. 27, 2013, which was approved by the Supreme Court of Appeals on Sept. 22, 2016.

According to the constitution, the loss of the parliamentary seat “through a final judicial sentence or deprivation of legal capacity, shall take effect after the final court decision in the matter has been communicated to the plenary” of the parliament, without the necessity for a vote.

Yüksekdağ, who was also the party’s lawmaker from the eastern province of Van, was arrested on Nov. 4, 2016, over her alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). She currently faces over 80 years in prison.

Ahmet Yıldırım, HDP’s deputy parliamentary group leader, said the decision was “void.”

“The prosecutors, judges of the said sentencing are currently in prison. The ruling of a power hiding behind terrorists cannot be the ruling of the judiciary,” Yıldırım said.

Trial begins for murder of soldier who resisted July 15 coup attempt

The trial for the killing of a Turkish anti-coup soldier, who has been idolized for his resistance during a raid on the Special Forces Command in Ankara before he was killed by coup plotting soldiers, has started. 

Ankara 14th Heavy Penal Court on Feb. 21 started the trials of 18 suspects in the case regarding the murder of non-commissioned officer Ömer Halisdemir after he shot a pro-coup general, Semih Terzi, who arrived in the commandership to capture it as part of its coup activities on July 15, 2016, which is widely believed to have been masterminded by the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ).

Acting on his commander’s orders, Halisdemir shot Terzi dead outside the special forces’ headquarters in Ankara. He was later killed by the plotters.

Hundreds of babies born after the coup have been named after Halisdemir as a tribute, while hundreds of thousands have visited his grave. Parks, schools and other public places have been named after him, while a cottage industry of souvenirs to preserve his memory was founded.

Dressed in suits, they were escorted into the courthouse by paramilitary forces in front of cameras surrounded by heavy security and a water cannon truck.

The courtroom was packed with security forces including police with shields behind the suspects as the judge confirmed the identities of those on trial.

Some 18 suspects, who are currently being accused of deliberately killing the soldier and attempting to remove the government, are facing multiple life sentences.

HDP co-chair Demirtaş given jail term, MP arrested

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş, who is currently under arrest, was sentenced on Feb. 21 to five months in prison on charges of “insulting the state and its institutions,” while the party’s Diyarbakır Deputy İdris Baluken was arrested for a second time in Ankara.

The Doğubayazıt 2nd criminal court of first instance on Feb. 21 sentenced Demirtaş to five years in prison on charges of “denigrating the Turkish nation, the Turkish Republic and the institutions of the state.”

Police also detained Baluken following an appeal against his release in a case filed as part of a terror investigation on Feb. 21. He was later arrested.

He had previously been released on Jan. 30 after being arrested on Nov. 4, 2016. An arrest warrant was later issued for him.

The court in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on Feb. 17 had issued an arrest warrant for HDP Diyarbakır deputy Baluken.

The prosecutor’s office previously appealed the court decision on Baluken’s release pending trial on Jan. 30 to a higher court.

After reviewing the appeal, the Diyarbakır 1st court of serious crimes on Feb. 17 issued an arrest warrant for Baluken.

Baluken faces an aggravated life sentence and up to 23 years in prison on four separate charges, namely “disrupting the unity of the state and the country,” “being a member of armed terror organization,” “engaging terror organization propaganda” and “refusing to disperse despite warning in illegal demonstration and marches.”

Source: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/hdp-co-chair-demirtas-given-jail-term-mp-arrested-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=110006&NewsCatID=341

Mosul residents storm Daesh-run jail, free dozens of inmates

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mosul-jailResidents of the Daesh-held Iraqi city of Mosul have managed to storm the city’s main prison and free dozens of inmates amid a major military operation by the Iraqi forces who are tightening the noose around the terror group holed up in the northern city.

Iraq’s Arabic-language al-Sumaria satellite television network quoted an unnamed security source as saying that the Mosul residents on Friday evening broke into the city’s main prison, located in the eastern part of Mosul, and freed at least 45 prisoners after killing all of the Daesh militants manning the jail.

The development comes as Iraqi army troops, backed by the country’s Hashd al-Shaabi forces, also known as the Popular Mobilization Units, and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, are closing in on Daesh’s last stronghold in Iraq from almost all directions in a full-scale operation launched on October 17 to liberate the city.

The Iraqi troops managed to enter Mosul’s limits earlier this week for the first time since June 2014, when Daesh began its terror campaign in northern and western Iraq. So far, a large number of the city’s villages and districts have been purged of terrorists. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has vowed that the country’s second largest city will be fully recaptured by year-end.

‘Daesh killing hundreds, recruiting children’

Meanwhile, UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani has announced that the terrorists have executed hundreds of people, including 180 former Iraqi government employees who were killed on Wednesday as the Takfiri group was withdrawing from Gogjali town.

Citing “credible reports”, she added that the terrorists also executed 50 deserters at the Ghazlani military base in Mosul on Monday.

Shamdasani, who was speaking on Friday at a regular UN briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, went on to say that Daesh had moved 1,600 people, likely to use them as human shields against airstrikes, from the town of Hammam al-Alil to Tal Afar near Mosul on Tuesday, and told them they might be taken to Syria.

She also warned that Daesh was trying to recruit children, particularly boys above the age of nine, in Hammam al-Alil as the group was increasingly losing its adult terrorists in clashes with the Iraqi troops.

“They’ve been knocking on people’s doors and asking for their boys,” Shamdasani further said, adding that defiant families were threatened with harsh punishment.

The UN official also said that Daesh was currently holding about 400 Kurdish, Izadi and Shia women in Tal Afar, and had possibly killed up to 200 people in Mosul.

On Friday, the Iraqi special forces launched an assault to advance deeper into the city’s urban center, and engaged in fierce fighting with Daesh terrorists, estimated to number between 3,000 and 5,000 in the sprawling city.

In another related development, Iraqi civilians fleeing Daesh in Mosul reunited with their families for the first time in more than two years at the al-Khazar camp, to the east of the city, on Friday.

Jailed Turkish novelist Asli Erdogan calls on Europe to stand up for its values

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asli-erdoganTurkish novelist Asli Erdogan has been in jail since August 19 for alleged links to Kurdish militants. She has written an urgent plea for European leaders to speak out against current developments in Turkey.

Dear friends, colleagues, journalists and members of the press,

I am writing this letter to you from Bakirkoy Prison, the day after “Cumhuriyet,” one of our oldest newspapers and the voice of Turkey’s social democrats, has been subjected to a police operation. More than a dozen of its writers are in custody at the moment, while four more are “wanted by police,” including Can Dundar, general director.

Even I was shocked!

This is a clear sign that Turkey has decided to disobey any law or respect any rights.

Currently, more than 130 journalists are in jail – a world record. Additionally, 170 newspapers, periodicals, and radio/TV channels have been shut down in two months. Our current government wants to monopolize “reality” and “truth.” Any opinion differing slightly from that of the rulers is violently suppressed: They are subjected to police beatings, held day and night under custody (up to 30 days), among other punishments.

I was arrested on August 19 simply because I am one of the advisors of “Ozgur Gundem,” the “Kurdish paper.” Although Press Law 11 clearly states that advisors have no legal responsibility for the paper, I haven’t yet seen a court that will listen to my story.

Along with me in this Kafkaesk trial is Necmiye Alpay, a 70-year-old linguist and translator who has also been arrested and charged with terrorism.

This letter is an urgent call!

The situation is drastic and horrifying and extremely worrisome. I believe that a totalitarian regime in Turkey will unavoidably shake all of Europe eventually.

Europe, currently concentrated on its “refugee crisis,” seems to underestimate the perils of total loss of democracy in Turkey. Now we – the writers, the journalists, the Kurdish, the Alevites and, of course, the women – are paying the heavy price for the “democracy crisis.”

Europe should assume its responsibility for the values it has defined with the blood of centuries, the values that make “Europe” a democracy with human rights, including freedom of speech and thought.

We need all your solidarity and support.

Many thanks for what you have done for us so far.

Best wishes,

Asli Erdogan

November 1, 2016

Bakirkoy Prison, C-9

Asli Erdogan, is a prominent Turkish novelist whose books have been translated into French, German, Arabic and Norwegian. She was jailed on August 19 for having alleged links with Kurdish militants. She was a member of the advisory board of the “Ozgur Gundem” daily, which was closed by court order on grounds of spreading propaganda of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Since the July 15 coup attempt, Turkey has started an operation to ostracize people with alleged links to Gulen movement, led by self-exiled US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed Gulen for orchestrating the failed coup. Gulen denied any involvement.