The press in Turkey, another journalist Erdogan’s enemy sentenced to 2,500 years in prison
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Alaina
- . April 19, 2021
- . Update: April 19, 2021 8:37 pm
The release of the writer Ahmet Altan, which took place a few days ago, is just an illusion. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s grip on intellectuals and artists does not let go of him. Now the request for a sentence against another journalist arrives like a cleaver, and the paroxysm of Turkish justice these days has it that the prosecutor has asked for his sentence to almost 2,500 years in prison.
After the promises of the sultan, the true face of the Turkish regime shows its true face. First with the arrest of 36 Kurdish activists, then the removal of the opposition posters on the sales of the Turkish lira, and finally the withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention for the protection of women. Hidayet Karaca has served as former general director of the now-closed Samanyolu Broadcasting Group, in a proceeding against him over match-fixing in Turkish football leagues, advocacy group Jailed Journos announced on Thursday.
Karaca attains accused of inciting violation of confidentiality of information, phone tapping and registration, and forgery of official documents. Accusations that could be unfounded as for the other hundreds of thousands of journalists imprisoned in Turkey. The journalist is one of the most prominent pupils of Fethullah Gülen, a Pennsylvania-based Muslim scholar, who Erdogan accuses of having organized a coup attempt on July 15, 2016, along with his followers. Samanyolu TV was among the media companies with close relations to Gülen.
The high-profile match-fixing case began in 2011 after police arrested 60 people in incursions across the country, including Aziz Yıldırım, then director of Istanbul-based club Fenerbahçe, and other pre-eminent figures in Turkey’s primary football group. The sultan didn’t just put thousands of journalists in jail. For some he threw away the keys, having them sentenced to life imprisonment or thirty years. Can Dundar was previously sentenced to more than 27 years in prison on charges of aiding a terrorist and espionage group.
As for uncomfortable newspapers, no problem: there are always some entrepreneur friends who can buy them. This is Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s press in Turkey. A year ago, the holding company of Turkish tycoon Aydin Dogan reached a deal for the sale of some of the main Erdogan’s opposition media, including Hurriyet and the Turkish CNN, to a group of entrepreneurs close to the family president for 1.25 billion dollars.
