Azeri Journalist Writing for Armenian Newspaper Receives Death Threats, Forced to Live Abroad

November 5, 2015 By administrator

Azerbaijan-born journalist and blogger Arzu Geybullayeva has written for major news outlets like Foreign Policy and al-Jazeera. Yet it’s her work for Agos, a Turkish-Armenian newspaper, that has led to threats from her native land.

Azerbaijan and neighboring Armenia do not have diplomatic relations. The former Soviet republics have fought periodic border skirmishes since a 1994 ceasefire suspended a war over Nagorno-Karabakh, a Rhode Island-sized enclave within Azeri borders that is populated mainly by ethnic Armenians.

For the Istanbul-based Geybullayeva, the criticism of her work for Agos began with small Azeri outlets, and spread to Azerbaijan’s state-owned media. Eventually Geybullayeva, who frequently blogs about human rights in Azerbaijan, received death threats online. By 2014 she realized it was no longer safe for her to return to her home country.

That year the Azeri government of President Ilham Aliyev unleashed a crackdown on the media. Among other incidents, the government arrested Khadija Ismayilova, an Azeri journalist who investigated corruption in Aliyev’s family. Ilgar Nasibov, a journalist and human rights activist, was beaten unconscious in what his wife told local media was likely an attack by Azerbaijan’s Interior Ministry.

Among the tactics the Azeri government has used against Geybullayeva is to apply pressure to her family in Azerbaijan, a strategy it has used againstother journalists and dissidents. Geybullayeva, 32, spoke with Global Journalist’s Vera Tan about press freedom in Azerbaijan and why she continues to write despite the risks.

Global Journalist: How did you know you wouldn’t be able to return to Azerbaijan safely?

Geybullayeva: I started to get mentioned in the news a lot more than I should have been mentioned. I was mostly labeled as a traitor because of my work [writing about] , and also because of my work with Agos.

Global Journalist: When did you start fearing for your life?

Geybullayeva: It was October [2014] when I received my first death threat – he told me [online] about the number of days I had left, he told me the exact location I’d be buried. I obviously realized that going home was out of the question because when you’re labeled a traitor, it’s quite a serious accusation…You realize that once you get labeled and such, it’s not really safe to go back, especially when a lot of people were ending up in prison at the time.

GJ: How long did the threats continue?

Geybullayeva: To be honest with you, some of them I stopped reading. It got to me, psychologically. And to me, what really pissed me off was when it went from being against me to against my family. People started calling my mom a whore, people started calling my father a traitor. When someone calls you a whore or a bitch, or imagines the many ways that want to rape you, that’s one thing, but when this imagination extends to your parents and the things that they imagine doing to your mother, for instance, I really think that’s borderline. At least it was for me.

GJ: Your brother has been threatened due to your work. How has that made you feel?

Geybullayeva: I try not to blame myself for the pressure and the stuff that he had to go through… But of course I do feel the responsibility… I so very clearly remember our conversation when – this was last summer – he called me yet again, and he was yelling on the phone, telling me how sick and tired he is of my writing and my work and then he told me that I should publicly apologize for my mistakes. He called my work a mistake… And it got to me.

But after that, I thought, no. I’m not going to write anything anywhere and to apologize for anything because I haven’t done anything wrong. And if it really does bother him, then I decided to tell him that he should disown me, that he should publicly disown me… And I think that sort of pushed his boundaries to actually realize that I am actually family.

GJ: How is it to live in Turkey knowing you can’t go back to Azerbaijan?

Geybullayeva: You really start understanding what freedom really is and what it really means in various circumstances. It makes me feel really sad because I cannot travel back to Azerbaijan, because I cannot visit my father’s grave, and I can’t visit my friends, but it definitely gives me the space and opportunity to do the work that I do.

GJ: Why do you still continue the work that you do?

Geybullayeva: I’ve always felt privileged. I’ve had the comfort of life that not everyone in Azerbaijan had… and I feel like I’m returning a favor to my upbringing by trying to tell the stories of those who did not or do not or will not have the same privileges… I sometimes wonder if it actually is making a difference, because to me it’s sometimes feels like it’s actually making matters worse, and more people get arrested, but then I also realize that if we keep silent then it’s even worse.

Already I see that people don’t know much about Azerbaijan. That is despite all the advancing that’s taking place in the sidelines, so what if people like me shut up? What if we stop doing the work that we do? Then what? I think that would not be me doing justice to my peers back home. Because I owe them at least a fight.

Two Syrian journalists murdered in Turkey’s southeast

October 30, 2015 By administrator

ŞANLIURFA – Doğan News Agency

Two Syrian journalists have been murdered in Turkey’s southeastern province of Şanlıurfa in what is presumed to be an attack by militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

İbrahim Abdulkadir, managing editor at Syrian Ayn Vatan newspaper and Firaz Hamadi, a reporter for the same newspaper, had fled the conflict in Syria for Şanlıurfa, where they shared a flat.

Their dead bodies were found by seven of their Syrian friends, who called the police and made an emergency appeal.

Reports indicate that one or more assailants, who remain unidentified, slit the throats of the reporters using a hunting knife.

It is claimed that both journalists were members of the Free Syrian Army and had been receiving death threats from ISIL for publishing reports against the jihadist organization.

The journalists’ bodies were transferred to the Forensic Medicine Institute for an autopsy.

Meanwhile, police detained the seven Syrians who found the murdered journalists’ bodies and called for help, in order to take their testimonies.

The investigation into the double homicides continues.

Turkey: 25 years sought for police chief in Dink murder indictment

October 26, 2015 By administrator

Signs and flowers are laid on the sidewalk in Osmanbey, İstanbul, to commemorate Armenian- Turkish journalist Hrant Dink. (Photo: Cİhan)

A prosecutor is seeking 25 years’ imprisonment for Engin Dinç, the head of the National Police Department’s intelligence unit, on charges of negligence in the 2007 murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

The details of the indictment prepared by public prosecutor Gökalp Kökçü, who is overseeing an ongoing investigation into state officials facing charges of misconduct and negligence in the murder of Dink, were recently revealed to media outlets.

According to the details of the indictment, Dinç, who was leading the Trabzon Police Department’s intelligence unit at the time of Dink’s murder in 2007, former Trabzon Police Chief Reşat Altay and former İstanbul Police Department Intelligence Unit Chief Ahmet İlhan Güler should be tried under Article 83 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) dealing with negligence causing death due to the failure to take appropriate action to prevent the death, which is punishable by up to 25 years imprisonment.

There are 25 state officials among the suspects in the investigation, including Dinç, Güler, Altay, former İstanbul Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah, former National Police Department Intelligence Unit head Sabri Uzun, former National Police Department’s intelligence unit head Ramazan Akyürek and former İstanbul Police Department Intelligence Bureau Chief Ali Fuat Yılmazer. Those suspects face charges of “forming an organization to commit crime,” “voluntary manslaughter,” “negligence” and “misconduct.”

It was also revealed that the prosecutor is seeking life sentences for Yılmazer and Akyürek and a year in prison for Cerrah and Uzun in the indictment.

However, earlier claims in the media stated the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office returned the indictment to Kökçü last Tuesday on the grounds that the indictment was “lacking.” After editing the indictment, Kökçü allegedly sent a new version of the 150-page document to the prosecutor’s office the day after.

The prosecutor’s office returned the indictment allegedly because the indictment included Dinç, who is known to be close to the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), among other state officials who are suspected of having engaged in negligence and misconduct regarding the Dink murder. According to the claims, the prosecutor’s office allegedly asked Kökçü to remove some names from the list of suspects although it is uncertain if he did.

Dinç is still operating as the head of the National Police Department’s intelligence unit. He worked as the Trabzon Police Department’s intelligence unit between Aug. 26, 2004 and Sept. 19, 2007. Several controversial incidents took place in Trabzon province during his period. The attempt of a local group to lynch members of the Association for Inmates’ Families’ Solidarity (TAYAD) during a demonstration held in Trabzon in 2005, a bomb attack on a McDonald’s restaurant in Trabzon in 2004 and the murder of Catholic Priest Andrea Santoro of the Sancta Maria Catholic Church by an ultranationalist teenager in Trabzon in 2006 were among those controversial incidents that took place during Dinç’s period.

Erhan Tuncel, who is a key suspect in the Dink murder, was among the perpetrators of the bomb attack on McDonald’s in 2004. However, Tuncel was allegedly kept outside of the investigation that was conducted into the bomb attack. He was then appointed as an informant working for the Trabzon Police Department’s intelligence unit.

In a petition filed by Hakan Bakırcıoğlu — the lawyer for the Dink family — with the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on Aug. 10, he asked the prosecutor’s office to try Dinç under Article 83. The lawyer claimed in the petition that Dinç had been aware of the intelligence that Yasin Hayal — another key suspect in the Dink murder — was planning to assassinate Dink as of Feb. 15, 2006 but did not send an official written statement to the Trabzon governor of that period, the Trabzon Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Trabzon provincial gendarmerie commander or the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) to warn them about the possible murder. Bakırcıoğlu also said Dinç neither informed the higher authorities about the preparations for the murder of Dink nor he conducted any operation against those who were planning the assassination to prevent the attack from taking place.

As the investigation into Dink’s murder deepened, eyes turned to Dinç, after several people working under him were arrested on charges of involvement in the murder.

Three police officers who worked under Dinç in the intelligence unit of the Trabzon Police Department — Ercan Demir, Özkan Mumcu and Muhittin Zenit — were arrested in January as part of an expanded probe into Dink’s murder. Trabzon Police Department Deputy Commissioner Mumcu and Zenit were arrested on Jan. 13 on charges of negligence and misconduct in Dink’s murder. An İstanbul court arrested former Cizre Police Chief Demir, who turned himself in on Feb. 23 after a warrant for his detention was issued on Jan. 16.

Dinç has since been promoted and is now chief of the National Police Department’s intelligence unit.

After the arrested police officials implicated Dinç, Kökçü twice summoned him to testify as part of the investigation as a suspect. However, Dinç did not go to the prosecutor’s office to testify. The media reports at that time claimed that Kökçü wanted to arrest Dinç over his suspected role in the Dink murder, but the government was disturbed by Kökçü’s intention and prevented Dinç from going to the prosecutor’s office to testify.

Dink was shot and killed by Ogün Samast, an ultranationalist teenager, in 2007. Samast and 18 others were brought to trial. Since then, the lawyers for the Dink family and the co-plaintiffs in the case have presented evidence indicating that Samast did not act alone. Another suspect, Hayal, was sentenced to life in prison for inciting Samast to commit murder.

The retrial started in September 2014 when the İstanbul 5th High Criminal Court complied with a ruling from the Supreme Court of Appeals in May 2013, overturning a lower court’s ruling that acquitted the suspects in the Dink murder case of charges of forming a terrorist organization. This decision paved the way for the trial of public officials on charges of voluntary manslaughter.

Source: Zaman

Italian journalist: Getting into Azerbaijan’s “black list” honor for people refusing to “kiss tyrant Aliyev’s feet”

October 7, 2015 By administrator

One does not have to try hard to get into Azerbaijan’s “black list.” You just need to tell the truth. This is what Milena Gabanelli, an Italian journalist, did covering the Karabakh war at the early 90’s. A few years ago, another Italian journalist, Anna Mazzone, also wrote a story on Artsakh where the war is not a remote memory but a conflict that may burst out any moment, the journalist herself writes for Formiche.net, recounting how she got into the “black list” of the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan.

At the beginning of her article, Mazzone states that the government of Azerbaijan has increased repressions against oppositionists deteriorating its international image, which was negative to start with. Over the recent years, dozens of human rights defenders, political and civil figures, journalists and bloggers have been arrested or jailed on politically motivated reasons. Many others left the country. NGO and their leaders’ bank accounts have been frozen. In some cases, those organizations were closed down. New laws made it practically impossible for the independent groups to be financed from abroad. According to the journalist, the international community criticizes Azerbaijani government’s “iron fist” from the one hand, and fails to promote an improvement of the situation in the country, from the other.

“I have never been in Azerbaijan’s ‘black list,’ but never say never. It happened and it makes me happy – being a ‘persona non grata’ for a dictator is always worth praising. Really, I did not do much to be given the honor – I just did my work,” Mazzone writes.

For many years, the journalist told her readers about Armenia and Azerbaijan, parts of the world that seem to be so remote, yet they are closer that one could imagine. Asking the Melendugno (Italy) residents would be enough to be convinced in that. These are the people, who protested against the realization of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which is to supply Azerbaijani gas to the European countries.

Mazzone notes that there are also other Italians banned from entering Azerbaijan. She acknowledges being in a good company in the “black list.” The list starts with the name of Antonia Arslan, a well-known Italian writer of Armenian descent, who traveled the whole peninsula during the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide committed by the Young Turks to spread the word about what happened in Turkey between 1915 and 1918.

The names of other journalists and TV reporters, who “are probably guilty of not kissing the tyrant Ilham Aliyev’s feet” are also in the “black list.” Names of sculptors, architects, actors and actresses are in their company, as well.

Mazzone further reminds that French journalists for the TV channel France 2 recently called the president Ilham Aliyev a “dictator” and Azerbaijan one of the cruelest dictatorships in the world. A dictator president cannot use against the foreign journalists the same methods he uses against the local journalists. Mazzone, citizen of a free and democratic country, does not understand a ban on entry into another country. Nonetheless, she hopes that democracy will be established in Azerbaijan. “Do not worry Aliyev. This is what happens to the ‘best dictators’ sooner or later,” the journalist sums up.

Back in 2013, the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan published a list of people who had become persona non grata in Azerbaijan for visiting Nagorno Karabakh Republic, and thus are barred from entry to the country. According to media reports, the number of the names included in the list is above 300, which, however, does not stop the world celebrities.

Turkey: Video shows Turkish police putting gun on journalist’s head in curfew town

October 4, 2015 By administrator

A video that emerged on Sunday showed a special operations police officer putting his gun on the head of a journalist after the latter wanted to record a police raid on the municipal building in Silvan which has been under a curfew for three days.

The video showed police threatening journalists in front of the Silvan Municipality after reporters from Özgür Gün TV wanted to take images from the raid. One of the policeman put his gun on Özgür Gün TV cameraman Murat Demir although he had said he shut down his camera.

Police detained Demir as well as Dicle News Agency (DİHA) reporter Sedat Yüce after seizing their cameras.

Turkey: Document shows gov’t ignored attacked journalist Hakan’s security request

October 1, 2015 By administrator

Hürriyet columnist and CNNTürk program host Ahmet Hakan legally requested that the Turkish government appoint a permanent security detail 17 days before he was targeted in a physical attack on Oct. 1, legal documents show.

Four men, arriving in a black Honda at 12:35 a.m. on Oct. 1, attacked Hakan in Istanbul’s Nişantaşı neighborhood, as he was returning home after hosting his television program.

Hakan was hospitalized with broken bones in his nose and ribs after he was beaten by three assailants. Another assailant targeted his private bodyguard, who was commissioned by daily Hürriyet.

The attack was preceded last month by a physical attack on daily Hürriyet’s headquarters in Istanbul by pro-Justice and Development Party (AKP) protesters on the night of Sept. 6. AKP deputy Abdurrahim Boynukalın was filmed amid that attack delivering a fiery speech in front of the Hürriyet office, and he was also filmed in another video explicitly threatening Hakan.

The veteran Hürriyet journalist has also been a regular target in Turkey’s pro-AKP media outlets.

“Like schizophrenia patients, you still think you are living in the days when Hürriyet was running the country. But we could crush you like a fly if we wanted. We have been merciful until today and you are still alive,” pro-government Star newspaper columnist Cem Küçük had written in a Sept. 9 article, addressing Hakan. A criminal complaint against Küçük has been filed since the piece appeared.

Istanbul Governor admits shortcomings in phone call

After the threats, Hakan’s lawyer Turgut Kazan spoke on the phone with Interior Minister Selami Altınok, personally requesting an official bodyguard due to the “imminent threat,” daily Hürriyet has learned.

Another lawyer, Aslı Kazan, also sent a written application to the Istanbul Governor’s Office on Sept. 14 to repeat Hakan’s request for a permanent bodyguard.

At the time Hakan was attacked on Oct. 1, the government had yet to respond to the request. Officials told lawyers that the request would be reviewed after the Eid al-Adha holiday, which ended in Turkey on Sept. 28.

The Istanbul Governor’s Office released a written statement on Oct.1. “Upon his request, [he] was granted ‘security upon call,’ but our investigation reveals that he did not request security on the day of the attack,” the statement read. It did not elaborate why a permanent security detail was not granted.

Istanbul Governor Vasip Şahin called Ahmet Hakan after the attack. “We think we were a little late in taking precautions. We will now take all precautions to protect you. Get well soon,” he said, according to a source.

Interior Minister Selami Altınok, on the other hand, later said that Hakan’s request was actually approved two ago, but “the procedure took longer” to appoint the bodyguard.

All suspects of the Sept. 6 and Sept. 8 attacks on the Hürriyet headquarters were released after briefly being detained by police and no legal proceedings had been launched against MP Boynukalın as of Oct. 1.

Turkey: Prominent Turkish Hurriyet journalist injured in gang attack

October 1, 2015 By administrator

Two of the four suspects who were detained after a physical assault that injured prominent Turkish journalist Ahmet Hakan have been revealed as members of the Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Four men, arriving in a black Honda at 12:35 a.m. on Oct. 1, attacked the daily Hürriyet columnist in Istanbul’s Nişantaşı neighborhood as he was returning home after hosting his television program on CNNTürk.

Private broadcaster Kanal D reported Oct. 1 that the four men were relatives originally from the eastern province of Van and two of them were registered as members of the AKP in Istanbul’s Fatih district.

Uğur Adıyaman, a 29-year-old private security officer, was convicted over drug-, threat- and fraud-related crimes. According to the report, he was registered as a member of the AKP on Oct, 12, 2010. His brother, Seyhan Adıyaman, had joined the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) 24 years ago.

The second assailant, Fuat Elmas, 29, became a member of the AKP on June 19, 2007, and worked at a private security firm until 2010, the report added.

The third assailant, Kamuran Ergin, 29, had previously faced drug- and armed assault-related charges in the court. He works at a textile company.

The report did not provide any background information about the fourth assailant, identified as Ahmet Güler.

“Whoever uses it for whatever reason, it is not possible to approve of violence. I always condemn violence and disapprove it, particularly when it targets journalists,” Davutoğlu said when journalists asked him about the incident in his plane as he was returning from his official visit to the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Attack targeting Hakan was the latest assault against daily Hürriyet and its journalists in the past month.

Hürriyet’s headquarters in Istanbul were attacked by pro-AKP protesters on Sept. 6, while AKP MP Abdurrahim Boynukalın was filmed threatening both Hakan and Hürriyet Editor-in-Chief Sedat Ergin. A second attack followed it in less than 48 hours.

No days go by in Turkey that a Journalist not being investigated, detained for ‘insulting Erdoğan’

September 20, 2015 By administrator

Journalist Ahmet Altan

The Ankara Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into journalist Ahmet Altan for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Altan was a guest on a TV program on Sept. 2, a day after police carried out a raid on the İpek Media Group in a government-orchestrated operation. Altan criticized the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and President Erdoğan on the program, which pro-government media outlets reported as threats against Erdoğan. Altan also condemned the raid on İpek and the government for conducting it.

The prosecutor’s office accepted the news reports as justification for an investigation of the journalist for insulting the president and the government, and for inciting people to hatred and hostility.

“The president violated the Constitution. Erdoğan broke the framework of the law. They [the AK Party] do not want [to hear] any opposing voices,” Altan had said on the TV program.

Altan also referred to Erdoğan’s previous remarks in which he said Turkey’s government has already been changed into a de facto presidential system and called for a constitutional framework to “finalize” this transition. “What does it mean to say that the system changed, de facto? Somebody please explain the legal framework of that to me. Changing the system is a crime, it is a coup,” Altan had said.

Turkey: Journalist probed for allegedly insulting Turkish president Erdogan

September 17, 2015 By administrator

An investigation has been launched against journalist Hasan Cemal into his article titled “The Sultan in the Palace is culpable for the bloodshed,” Cemal has told daily Hürriyet.

Cemal was summoned to testify on Sept. 17 and the probe was launched purportedly on the charge of “insulting the Turkish president” in his article published on news website T24 on Aug. 12.

“We as journalists have been through hard times thus far with juntas, military coups, state of emergency, martial law. But, what hurts at this point is this was the first lawsuit filed against me since March 12,” Cemal said, recalling Turkey’s second military coup on March 12, 1971, which is known as the “coup by memorandum.”

Cemal was born in 1944 in Istanbul and is currently a columnist for T24.

He graduated from the Ankara University Political Sciences School in 1965 and started his career in journalism in weekly magazine Devrim in Ankara.

Among dailies he worked for were Yeni Ortam, Anka Ajansı and Günaydın.

In 1973, he started a column in daily Cumhuriyet and became its Ankara Bureau Chief in 1979, two years before he assumed the role of editor-in-chief of the popular daily.

Most recently, Cemal had worked at daily Milliyet for 15 years, but he was sorted out for his articles in 2013.

Turkish journalist urges to relentlessly exterminate Kurds “USA are You hearing fascism”

September 8, 2015 By administrator

Correspondent of Turkey’s Anadolu agency Mustafa Uygun has urged on his Facebook page to brutally exterminate the Kurds. Uygun’s post greatly resonated with Turkey.

He wrote: “Our last responsibility before the dead is not to carry his coffin but shed blood. These mountains must turn purple with blood. Our last responsibility must be slaughter, regardless of who they are: young or old men, pregnant woman or a child.”

Interestingly enough, the comment gained “likes” and also received words of praise.

Source: NEWS.am

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