Media Owners Talk on Military Interventions

The parliamentary commission on military interventions and coups continue listening to journalists and media owners. Lastly, prominent columnist Hasan Cemal went before the commission.

According to Parliamentary News, former owner of Sabah daily, Dinç Bilgin, owner of Akşam daily and Show TV, Mehmet Emin Karamehmet, former editor-in-chief of Sabah daily, Zafer Mutlu and journalists Mehmet Barlas and Canan Barlas already talked to commission members.

Sharing his memories about the military intervention on February 28, 1997 and April 27, 2007, columnist Hasan Cemal underlined the efforts of former president Süleyman Demirel in avoiding a military coup.

According to NTV, Cemal said that "When those who favored an open military coup in 1997 failed to achieve their goals, new plans emerged within the army following AKP's rise to power in 2002".

Talking on the events of 1997, Dinç Bilgin said "Turkey was a different country then. If we had the prime minister or the parliament we have now, Turkey would not have suffered from those events".

Noting that those days he owned four national dailies, a local daily, around 40 magazines and two national TV channels, Bilgin added:

"I had everything but after February 28, I lost all. Before, there was fierce competition in media. This competition prolonged to the political scene. We were supporting DYP and Doğan Group was supporting ANAP. The function of the media began losing its way in that period."

Honorary President of Doğan Group, Aydın Doğan also said that they were opposing Tansu Çiller, the late prime minister and head of DYP.

"If the politicians had hold onto their power and stand tall against the powers resisting democracy, those events would not have happened. The government stood tall in 2007. Former prime ministers were different." (AS/EÜ)