25/04/2023
On the morning of 25 April, 2023, mass house raids and arrests took place in Turkey centred on the city of Diyarbakır in the Kurdish region.
According to media reports, 110 people were detained so far and the number is expected to increase.
Mesopotamya News Agency (MA) editor Abdurrahman Gök, the agency’s editor Ahmet Kanbal, Yeni Yaşam newspaper Editor-in-Chief Osman Akın, Xwebün news outlet’s owner Kadri Esen, women-run newspaper Jinnews’ reporter Beritan Canözer, journalists Mehmet Yalçın and Mikail Barut are among those detained.
Lawyer Resul Temur, who represented 25 Kurdish journalists arrested on 16 June 2022 in Diyarbakır and 29 October 2022 in Ankara, is also among those detained along with 20 lawyers from the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (Özgürlükçü Hukukçular).
Since there is a restriction order on the case file, the reason for the detentions is not known and the detainees will not be able to access their lawyers for 24 hours.
The detention of dozens of people, including journalists, lawyers, election campaigners of the Green Left Party, rights defenders and artists, 19 days before the elections, which are of historical importance for society of Turkey, is alarming and a clear violation of the freedoms of expression, press and association. This is clear and discriminatory targeting of Kurdish journalists and editors at a time, just before the elections, when a pluralistic media is most essential to bring news from varying sources to the population of Turkey.
PEN Norway calls on the authorities of Turkey to immediately end the persecution of Kurdish journalists, lawyers and right defenders and act according to its mandate to ensure freedom of expression and press in the country. All detainees must be released immediately and all associated charges dropped. PEN Norway stands in solidarity with all baselessly persecuted members of the Kurdish media.
