Newspaper's name on street sign censored in trustee-appointed Diyarbakır

* Photo: Mezopotamya Agency (MA)

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On the street named after journalist Hafız Akdemir, who was killed in 1992, there was a signboard explaining who Akdemir was. After the elected Metropolitan Co-Mayor of Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Diyarbakır was replaced with a state-appointed trustee by the Ministry of Interior, the content of the signboard has been changed.

In the original version of the sign on the street in Sur district, it was written, "Known for his news about unidentified murders in the Özgür Gündem newspaper, where he was working, Hafız Akdemir was massacred by unidentified persons on this street (Palu) on June 8, 1992."

As reported by the Mezopotamya Agency (MA), after Peoples' Democratic Party's (HDP) Diyarbakır Co-Mayor Selçuk Mızraklı was removed from office and arrested, the trustee appointed in his place has changed the content of this signboard and removed both the name of the newspaper and the fact that he was reporting news on unidentified murders.

The signboard now reads as follows: "Leaving his home to go to the Diyarbakır Office of the newspaper where he was working on June 8, 1992, Hafız Akdemir was massacred on this street (Palu) by unidentified persons."

Journalist Hafız Akdemir, who used to live on the Palu street, was murdered in an armed attack on the same street when he left his home for work. By the decision of the Sur District Municipal Council, the name of the street was changed from Palu to Hafız Akdemir on October 3, 2013.

Özgür Gündem newspaper was closed by a Statutory Decree on October 29, 2016. Both its columnists and executives and the journalists and writers who participated in the "Editors-in-Chief on Watch" campaign launched in solidarity with the newspaper faced and are still facing charges over their contribution to the newspaper. (EKN/SD)