Who has the journalists arrested this time?

In mid February, a young Turkish intelligence officer died while on duty in Libya. President Erdoğan did not disclose the name of the intelligence officer, although he personally gave information about this.

One of the opposition MPs held a press conference at the parliament and disclosed the name of that intelligence officer along with the Turkish soldiers died in Libya.

Images from the funeral ceremony of the intelligence officer, who was buried in his hometown where he was born, were also shared on social media by writing his name and surname. And the country’s largest internet site also posted a news on the website, adding photos, which were sent by the regional reporter from the funeral ceremony.

In 2019, the news director of the website, of which reading count is 3 million 400 thousand daily, was taken from his home the next morning and taken to the Istanbul police station, arrested at midnight by a court decision. The next day, the website’s editor-in-chief is summoned to the police, then testified in the prosecutor’s office and arrested by a court decision. Then another journalist, who had been released by the court on parole, was again summoned to the court with the protest of the prosecutor and arrested.

The common characteristics of all three journalists are to write books and articles about the seizure of the state by religious communities and the illegal actions of the government. The books of all three journalists are also among the best-sellers in Turkey. The common fates of the two were their imprisonment in February 2011 and the continuation of legal proceedings in spite of their release 20 months later.

Yes, the investigation and trial processes of owner of www.odatv.com website, Soner Yalçın, editor-in-chief, Barış Pehlivan, and news director, Barış Terkoğlu, who fought without concessions against the seizure of the state by FETÖ terrorist organization, lasted exactly 74 months, and the last of the court board, which was changed many times, acquitted all suspects.

Exactly 9 years later, Pehlivan and Terkoğlu are again prisoners of the Silivri prison. They were caught by the FETÖ judges at that time, but who arrested them or has them arrested now? When journalists are arrested in mass?

Journalists and writers are arrested in mass in two cases: 1) First, the ones who are fighting to seize the power within the state seeks to bring prosecutors and courts under control (the same has been done by the FETÖ); 2) Second, they secretly prepare for regime changes in the country and to do this without serious hassle, it is necessary to silence the media and journalists who have great influence on the public.

Both of these reasons are present for the subsequent arrests of journalists and writers who have written well and become the most influential figures of Turkish society with their books and articles and run the country’s most powerful website. For months, everyone has seen that a group, which has great power in government and secretly dominated over the Istanbul courts, has journalists, scientists, and thinkers arrested, ignoring the binding decisions of both the European Court of Human Rights and the Turkish Supreme Court. The political invoice for this is written to the behalf of political power in Ankara (as in the tactics used during the FETÖ era).

The second reason for the mass arrests of journalists is their plans to establish a new state in Turkey. Within this secret plan, mass arrests of journalists and writers, who have a strong influence on the society, the closure of the internet site, which has been read 3 million 400 thousand times a day, also serve that secret purpose. Even after the removal of news about the funeral ceremony of the intelligence officer, if access to the website is forbidden, the issue goes far deeper than the funeral issue. I can personally say that I would not post that information on a website that would be under my control because it was fairly open to social media and I do not believe it would ever get a rating for the website.

What can maximum pressure on the media be expressed with at the moment we are leaving behind the one-fifth of the 21st century? What is the key of the situation?

“Freedom of the press is still the solution to the problems that occurred in connection with the freedom of the press” (Mustafa Kemal Atatürk)

He died 81.5 years ago.