ANKARA - Journalists and journalism organizations gathered in the Turkish capital to protest against the arrest of 11 Kurdish journalists.

 

Journalist unions, including the Turkey's Journalists' Union (TGS) and the Broadcasting and Printer Workers Union (DİSK BASIN-İŞ) organized a protest in Ankara in response to the arrest of Mesopotamia Agency (MA) and Jinnews reporters on early Tuesday morning by simultaneous raids to their homes and offices in sverel cities of Turkey. 

 

“We have woken up to the special war government’s attacks against media,” Özgür Paksoy, a MA editor said during the protest. “ This is an attack to silence the society, But they can not silence us. We will keep chasing the voice of the truth.”

 

‘POLICE ADMITTED TORTURE’

 

Paksoy reacted to the images served by Ankara Police Department, which showed the detention of Berivan Altan and Deniz Nazlım.

 

Two journalists were handcuffed from behind as two police officers were seen pushing at the back of their heads, making it physically impossible to hold their up.

 

“Ankara Police admitted torture in their statements afterwards. We do not make anonymous or encrypted journalism as they claim. We all have our identity cards and press cards in our pockets,” Paksoy said.

 

‘THEY STORMED OUR OFFICE’

 

Prominent journalist Hüseyin Aykol and Peoples’ Democratic Party’s MP Hüseyin Kaçmaz were among the people who supported the protest.

 

“If they had called our friends inviting them to the police station for testimonies, they would all go. But no, they raided homes with lon-barelled weapons. Such.a shame,” Aykol said.

 

Aykol reminded the special case of Zemo Aggoz: “She just gave birth.  They have arrested the mother of a new-born. She was already on maternity leave.”

 

“They messed up our bureau,” Aykol continued, “They seized our computers. We need to replace these with the solidarity of our people. We will work even harder for those friends who were arrested.”

 

TORTURE, MISTREATMENT, VERBAL ABUSE

 

Another detail of the house raids was reported by our agency previously that some police officers abused women journalists during they kept them waiting lying on th ground during their so-called “search” continued.

 

“We have been also verbally abused by the police who used a sexist language. They pointed guns at us,” Dilan Babat, a Jinnews reporter who witnessed one of the home raids in Ankara, said.

 

“We know this kind of mistreatment well. They fear from our news. We will keep scaring them with our news,” Babat said.

 

“They posed while their pushed at the back of our friends as they made them lie down on the ground. Such a shame,” Sibel Hurtas, the chair the TGS Ankara Office, said.

 

Goktas informed the public that they have not been able to reach any information on the natüre of the accusations against the journalists due to the “confidentiality order” on the investigation.