November 27, 2015•Update: November 27, 2015
ISTANBUL
Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor Hadi Salihoglu has said the recent arrests of two Turkish journalists of local Cumhuriyet daily has nothing to do with the issue of press freedom in Turkey.
On Thursday, Istanbul's 7th Penal Court of Peace ordered the arrests of Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of the newspaper, and the daily’s Ankara bureau chief, Erdem Gul, in the case involving the search of trucks belonging to the Turkish intelligence MIT in 2014.
In a statement released Friday, Salihoglu said that Dundar and Gul were arrested for "disclosing information that was meant to be kept confidential for the sake of the state’s security".
"The search of [Turkish intelligence] MIT trucks has no concern with ‘freedom of press’, which is guaranteed in the [Turkey’s] constitution, and no individual rights and freedoms have been violated. The suspects were invited to the prosecution office by phone without any detention," he said.
The newspaper where the duo worked had published photographs and video footage purportedly showing the MIT trucks which were stopped by local gendarmerie in southern Adana and Hatay provinces on the grounds that they were loaded with ammunition, despite a national security law forbidding such a search. The case saw the arrests of 26 soldiers.
Turkey's Interior Ministry said at the time that the trucks, which were reportedly carrying arms into northern Syria, were in reality conveying humanitarian aid to the Turkmen community in the war-torn country.
Accompanying photographs published by the daily showed several vehicles filled with weapons and ammunition, stacked under cardboard boxes containing medication. In one photograph, the serial numbers on the ammunition were also visible.
Salihoglu said that the investigation into the sources of the journalists for obtaining the photos of the trucks was still on going.
He added that the investigation showed that no information, documents, evidence or a sign could be found which indicated that the MIT trucks had been carrying aid for any illegal organization.
He added that the MIT trucks had been transporting humanitarian aid to the Syrian Turkmen community but they were stopped and searched by "managers and members of the FETO/PYD terrorist organization".
Salihoglu alleged that the MIT trucks operation had been carried out on the orders of Fetullah Gulen and Emre Uslu, leaders of the "FETO/PYD terrorist organization".
He accused the journalists of disclosing confidential information in articles published in the Cumhuriyet daily in an alleged attempt to aid the "FETO/PYD terrorist organization".
