Pressure over Turkish media: Well known 83 years old columnist Ilhan Selcuk taken into custody

In an operation 13 people are taken into custody including Ilhan Selcuk who is columnist and Cumhuriyet newspaper’s chairperson of the board of trustees was taken into custody with the suspect ion of his having links with an illegal nationalist group named as Ergenekon. There are protests in front of Cumhuriyet newspaper which is known as one of the few opposing publications to AKP (Justice and Development Party) and Islamist movement in Turkey.

Prof.Kemal Alemdaroglu, former rector of Istanbul University and Dogu Perincek who is the leader of Worker’s Party are also taken into custody with the same operation around in early morning in Istanbul. It is very surprising to see that these custodies took place just after the Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya’s call for court for closure of ruling party AKP with the claims of party and its members to be working against laicism and secularism in Turkey which has been long secured by the constitutions.

According to mainstream Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, analysts state that this operation is a new episode in the nationalist and Islamist groups’ struggle for power. There is no doubt that Cumhuriyet has been opposing the ruling government AKP for so long and Ilhan Selcuk has been criticising the action taken by the government and claiming them as to be in favour of changing the secular state into a Islamic republic.

This custody of Ilhan Selcuk, who is a prominent columnist of Cumhuriyet, can well be seen as a pressure over the journalists working in Turkey. Selcuk is 83 years old and respected journalist who is also known as the educator of many journalists in Turkey. He could have been invited to the court with an official call instead of arresting him in the early morning. This event could well affect also his health condition as well because of his age and health conditions related with that.

According to the news of mainstream newspaper Hurriyet, Oktay Eksi, the chairman of Turkish Press Council -an influent media organization-, said he was shocked by custody of Selcuk. "I don't think they are involved with such organization. I just want to say that I am shocked".

Deniz Baykal, leader of CHP (Republican People’s Party) the main political party in opposition stated that AKP (Justice and Development Party) is trying to “create their own deep state”.

Gokhan KURTARAN