Diyarbakır started the day again with a morning police operation. As part of an Ankara-based investigation, Mesopotamia Agency editor Sedat Yılmaz, his wife Selma Yılmaz, and Dicle Müftüoğlu, co-president of the Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG), were detained from their homes.
Progressives, journalists, and their friends and families were rounded up in many provinces in Turkey in the latest attack against the opposition for the upcoming May 14th elections.

In Istanbul, Sedat Yılmaz’s sister Filiz Yılmaz; In Fethiye, Cihan Güneş; In Urfa, Ramazan Debe, Söke, Erol Balcı, and several others were detained, including Evin Özbek, Mahmut Doği, Devran Ak and Cahit Kanbay.

While it was stated that those detained in 15 different cities would be taken to Ankara, a restriction to the rule for the accused to allow consultation with their lawyer within 24 hours was imposed for those detained in the investigation. The accused will not be able to see their lawyers.

Following the operation, DİSK/Basın-İş and DFG made a statement. Demanding the release of the journalists, DİSK Basın-İş said, “Our colleagues are as clear as water. You will not be able to generate crime from journalism!”

DFG: “You will not be able to silence the free press”

The Dicle Fırat Journalists Association, DFG, announced that for more than 30 years, the free press has not bowed to any form of repression. Stating that the operation was an election operation, the DFG demanded the release of the journalists. The DFG’s statement is as follows:

On April 25, four of the ten journalists detained due to the operations in 21 provinces based in Diyarbakir were arrested. At the same time, some others were released on condition of judicial control. The only thing that was asked of our colleagues in the relevant operations and considered criminal charges was the news they reported. While we, as journalists, were still in the corridors of the courthouse and the courthouse answering questions on another inquiry, we, unfortunately, woke up to another operation this morning (April 29). Dicle Müftüoğlu, the co-president of our association, and journalist Sedat Yılmaz, the editor of the Mesopotamia Agency, were taken into custody after their homes were raided. Our co-chair, Dicle Müftüoğlu, is a journalist who visits the courthouse even at the slightest question on [the credibility and the attacks on] journalists. He has been at the Diyarbakır Courthouse for days and has been in solidarity with his colleagues. [He has not evaded the prosecutor or the authorities. He is not someone who runs away.] In the last ten months, 30 of our colleagues have been arrested in operations against Kurdish journalists, and dozens of our colleagues have been detained. This operation is also similar; we know there is a continuous operation against freedom of expression, the right to information, the free press, and the silencing of Kurdish journalists. Undoubtedly, these operations carried out days before the most critical elections in the country’s history have no other name than “election operation!” These operations against journalists must end immediately. For over 30 years, the free press has faced thousands of kinds of pressure, yet it has not bowed. It has not bent its pen. The workers of the free press, whose only goal and motto is ‘truth,’ will not bow down today! These attempts to intimidate journalism and the public’s right to information are futile. Our co-chair Dicle Müftüoğlu and journalist Sedat Yılmaz should be released immediately. You will not be able to bend the pen of truth or silence the free press!

Source: Mesopotamia Agency
MB