Compiled Reports
Cumhuriyet Editor-in-Chief Can Dündar and the daily’s Ankara Bureau Chief Erdem Gül were arrested Nov. 26 due to a story about Turkish intelligence trucks bound for Syria in early 2014.
“We are accused of ‘spying.’ The president said [our action is] ‘treason.’ We are not traitors, spy, or heroes; we are journalists. What we have done here was a journalistic activity,” Dündar said before testifying to prosecutors Nov. 26.
Footage released by Cumhuriyet on May 29 reportedly showed gendarmerie and police officers opening crates on the back of trucks which contained what the daily described as weapons and ammunition sent to Syria by MİT in January 2014.
(Cumhuriyet publishes video for weaponry in lorries affiliated to Turkish intelligence-May 19)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan filed an individual criminal complaint against Dündar and Cumhuriyet on June 2, claiming that the story “included some footage and information that are not factual” while saying the person “who wrote the story will pay a heavy price.”
Journalists in Turkey working for one of the major news outlets filmed intelligence trucks being unloaded with crates of weapons bound for the Turkmen inside of Syria. The Erdogan government is going after these reporters, arresting them and accusing them of faking the footage. Erdogan is leading Turkey down a dangerous path.
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