Taraf daily to sue PM Erdoğan over treason accusations


Date posted: December 8, 2013

Daily Taraf has announced that it will file a criminal complaint against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on charges of attempting to influence due process after the Turkish leader called on the “judiciary to do its duty” against the newspaper for exposing a plan to eliminate the Gülen movement.

Taraf said Erdoğan had filed a criminal complaint against the daily’s Mehmet Baransu for leaking secret state documents but then went further by saying “the judiciary must do its duty” during a meeting.

A lawyer for the daily, Veysel Ok, will file the criminal complaint this week, the daily said today.

“Erdoğan’s words mean ordering prosecutor and judges what to do, and it’s a damage to the judiciary. These are crimes under the Turkish Criminal Code’s 228th Article,” Ok was quoted as saying by Taraf.

Erdoğan slammed Taraf last week for revealing a document from a 2004 National Security Council (MGK) meeting, accusing Baransu of “treason.”

“Revealing state privacy is not called freedom, it is sheer treason,” Erdoğan said, addressing a crowd in the northwestern province of Tekirdağ during a mass opening ceremony on Dec. 7.

The statement comes a day after prosecutors launched investigations Baransu and Taraf. Separate criminal complaints were filed by the Prime Ministry, the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and the National Security Council (MGK).

The document, published by the newspaper on Nov. 28, revealed that the government had adopted an action plan against Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen’s movement during the MGK meeting. Its publishing further heated a row between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Hizmet (Service) movement, which erupted after a reform to close test prep schools was announced. Many of the schools are run by members of the Hizmet movement.

In a subsequent report, also based on documents leaked by Baransu, Taraf claimed that the Turkish government had profiled a number of groups based on religion and faith through the MİT, many of them affiliated with the Gülen movement, and monitored their activities until 2013.

On Dec. 7, Baransu said via Twitter that he found a hidden camera and a receiver in his apartment. “My source who told me that intelligence officers were following me warned me of this,” he said.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News , December 8, 2013

Tags: | | | |


Related News

The dominant assessment in NATO: Turkey’s President Erdoğan staged the coup himself

Senior NATO sources tell aldrimer.no that they believe Erdoğan staged the coup himself. However, they stress that there is no written NATO documentation for that claim, because it is simply too sensitive. That’s because all member nation’s have the right to access to all intelligence information gathered by the alliance.

Gülen, Erdoğan’s new agenda item with the West

Yet, no matter how strong of views he might voice to his interlocutors about the Gülen movement (Cemaat) he can’t save himself from the problem of credibility. While he was giving assurance in Brussels that he is not interfering with the judiciary, the fact that the very same day the pressure exerted by the undersecretary of the Justice Ministry to the chief prosecutor in his investigation on a corruption case was revealed through documents will lead the EU to approach these assurances with suspicion.

Gülen warns against adventurism, using force against Kurds

Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen has warned against adventurism as well as using force to respond to demonstrations that have turned violent since reports that the terrorist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has captured the strategic city of Kobani (or Ayn-al Arab) over the weekend.

Turkey, caliphate and Erdoğan

The narrative, behavior pattern and policy decisions of Turkey’s chief political Islamist Recep Tayyip Erdoğan suggests that he believes the caliphate can be resurrected, with himself as the sole contender to become caliph, thereby gaining autonomous political authority over at least part of the Islamic world.

Lynching campaign: Democratic stance of Zaman and Today’s Zaman

We have been observing a systematic campaign of lynching in social media against Zaman and Today’s Zaman. Zaman has been on the side of democracy since it was launched. To this end, it has supported the democratic reforms that Turgut Özal initiated as well as the EU membership bid and the AK Party’s democratic reforms. Zaman has never wavered in its democratic stance despite all direct and indirect pressures.

Turkish Islamic scholar Gülen rejects any link to graft probe

Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen has rejected any link to an ongoing corruption probe in which 52 people, including well-known businessmen, the sons of three ministers, and a number of advisors, have been detained as part of a major investigation into alleged bribery linked to public tenders. Gülen strongly denied allegations that the probe was launched as part of a row between the government and the Hizmet movement.

Latest News

Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison

Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney

Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement

ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment

New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement

European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade

Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet

In Case You Missed It

Kimse Yok Mu extends a helping hand to thousands of Guineans

The mother of all wars

Afghan education minister recommends Turkish schools in each province

Think over extradition request [for Gulen] with care

GYV president Usak passes away in exile

Local priests participate in landmark interfaith trip to Turkey

Senior AK Party member admits profiling of citizens in government, private sector

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News