Jailed Zaman editor says we are journalists, not terrorists

The logo of Turkish daily newspaper Zaman is seen on the headquarters building as people demonstrate in support of the newspaper in Istanbul on March 4, 2016. An Istanbul court on Friday ordered into administration the Turkish daily newspaper Zaman that is sharply critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, amid growing alarm over freedom of expression in the country.
The logo of Turkish daily newspaper Zaman is seen on the headquarters building as people demonstrate in support of the newspaper in Istanbul on March 4, 2016. An Istanbul court on Friday ordered into administration the Turkish daily newspaper Zaman that is sharply critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, amid growing alarm over freedom of expression in the country.


Date posted: September 20, 2017

Former Zaman daily Ankara Representative Mustafa Ünal, who is standing trial after 414 days in pretrial detention, said on Monday that he and other colleagues in the same case are journalists, not terrorists.

Speaking during the hearing at the İstanbul 13th High Criminal Court in the Silivri Prison compound on Monday, Ünal underlined that he was a journalist who was trying to survive by expressing his views in Zaman before it was shut down by the government. He also said he knows many members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) personally.

“I want to ask them [AKP members]: Are we terrorists?”

Underlining that he is standing trial for writing against the government, Ünal said he has never been afraid of being tried for the things he has written. “However, the indictment will go down in the history of the judiciary and the media for not having even the suspicion of a crime having been committed, let alone evidence of one,” he added.

Also testifying during the hearing on Monday, former Zaman night editor İbrahim Karayeğen said his name is among the suspects in the case; however, he doesn’t even know what charges he is facing despite having been held in pretrial detention for 414 days.

Underlining that he wants all putshchists who attempted a coup on July 15 of last year to be punished with the most severe of penalties, Karayeğen said he had been working at Zaman for 12 years and continued to work as a night shift editor with the new administration after the daily was seized in March 2016.

“Someone may ask why I continued to work at Zaman and why I didn’t leave it [after the government started to target it]. That is a cruel question. How could I find a place to work as a journalist when thousands of other colleagues were unemployed,” he said.

Denying that he used the infamous ByLock smart phone application, Karayeğen said he has never downloaded the app, believed by Turkish authorities to have been used as a communication tool among followers of the Gülen movement, which accused by the government of being behind the failed coup.

He also said he was detained after the abortive coup as he was trying to travel abroad, which is his legal right.

Karayeğen’s daughter Zeliha Esra Karayeğen was also arrested by a court on Aug. 10 for having an account in the government-shuttered Bank Asya and for downloading the ByLock application.

Along with Ünal and Karayeğen, a total of 30 former Zaman journalists, 21 of whom are in jail, are facing “terrorism” and “coup-plotting” charges due to having worked and written for the Zaman daily, which was linked to the Gülen movement.

Former Zaman employees Mümtaz’er Türköne, Şahin Alpay, Ali Bulaç, Ahmet Metin Sekizkardeş, Ahmet Turan Alkan, Alaattin Güner, Cuma Kaya, Faruk Akkan, Hakan Taşdelen, Hüseyin Belli, Hüseyin Turan, İbrahim Karayeğen, İsmail Küçük, Mehmet Özdemir, Murat Avcıoğlu, Mustafa Ünal, Onur Kutlu, Sedat Yetişkin, Şeref Yılmaz, Yüksel Durgut and Zafer Özsoy have been in pretrial detention for 14 months as the judges repeatedly rejected challenges to their detention despite the fact that there was no reason to keep them in jail pending trial.

Ahmet İrem, Ali Hüseyinçelebi, Süleyman Sargın, Osman Nuri Arslan, Osman Nuri Öztürk, Lalezer Sarıibrahimoğlu, Nuriye Ural and Orhan Kemal Cengiz are also named as suspects in the indictment, but they are being tried without detention. Professor İhsan Duran Dağı, who used to work as a columnist for Zaman, is cited as a fugitive in the indictment.

 

Source: Turkish Minute , September 18, 2017


Related News

Retired ambassadors slam government orders over graft probe

“Will ambassadors tell their foreign colleagues that a corruption investigation started, which includes some members of the government, and that the government found the solution in changing a number of bodies such as the HSYK [Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors] and judicial police regulations?” asked former ambassador Deniz Bölükbaşı.

Kimse Yok Mu invited for consultation before UN summit

Turkey-based charity organization Kimse Yok Mu (Is Anyone There?), which has been a target of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government’s unjust smear campaigns, has now been invited to an exclusive meeting ahead of the UN’s World Humanitarian Summit.

AK Party founder: I don’t believe claims of parallel state

Yaşar Yakış, former foreign minister and a founding member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), criticized the party on Monday, saying he does not believe in the existence of a “parallel state,” a term used by the AK Party to describe followers of the faith-based Hizmet movement, which the government alleges to have formed an illegitimate structure within the state.

Visually impaired journalist sent to prison over Gülen links

Visually impaired Turkish journalist Cüneyt Arat was sent to prison late on Monday due to his alleged links to the Gülen movement. When Arat learned that a prison sentence approved by an upper court on Sunday, he turned himself in to the police later the same day.

After The Coup Attempt, A Crackdown In Turkey

Once considered a beacon of hope for the Middle East, Turkey has been rapidly backsliding on issues of democracy, freedom of the press, and human rights. One would have thought this downfall hit bottom on July 15, when a bloody coup was attempted, leaving behind more than 250 dead.

Turkey in 2014: Not too bright [Witch-hunt against Gulen Movement expected]

As I have written before, if there are bureaucrats who misuse their authority to serve the interest of the Gülen Movement, or any other entity, the government certainly has the right to fire them and bring them to justice. However, what Dilipak describes is a much larger scale witch-hunt, which can only violate many civil liberties and raise the tension in society to new heights.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

Fethullah Gülen’s book translated into Belarusian

MHP asks gov’t how many state officials reassigned after graft scandal

Two volunteers of Gülen Movement reportedly abducted after released by Azerbaijani Court

In Georgia the Shahin Friendship School facing closure – Political influence?

Afghan-Turk Teachers Call Their Extradition Illegal

Abant Platform Proposes Mother Tongue Education

Senegalese deputies say Turkish schools taught them fraternity

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News