"Who is next?"

The Platform for Solidarity with Arrested Journalists (TGDP) announced in a statement that Dicle News Agency (DİHA) reporter Aydın Yıldız was arrested and journalists Kazım Şeker, editor of the Özgür Gündem newspaper, and Tayyip Temel, writer and former General Publications Director of the Kurdish Azadiya Welat newspaper, were taken into police custody.

It was said in the statement that DİHA reporter Yıldız was taken into police custody on 1 October when he came from the Mersin (south-eastern tip of the Mediterranean) office of the Özgür Gündem newspaper. He was brought to Gaziantep and was arrested on 4 October.

The TGDP stressed that both executives of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party and journalists were taken into police custody in the course of simultaneous police operations in six different cities on Tuesday (4 October). With the arrest of Aydın Yıldız, the number of journalists in prison increased to 63, the platform declared.

According to the written statement, Temel, former General Publications Director of Azadiya Welat and still working as a writer for the Kurdish newspaper, was taken into custody in Diyarbakır (south-eastern Turkey) on 3 October. Özgür Gündem newspaper Editor Şeker was taken into custody in Istanbul on 4 October.

The platform expressed their concern about the latest developments. "The supposed list in Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's pocket with 1,400 persons to be arrested becomes reality", the statement read.

Unfounded allegations

The statement asked "Who is next?" and continued, "The terror of mass detentions and arrests against Kurdish politicians who act in accordance with the Anti-Terror Law (TMY) and against journalists is a direct attack on free speech, freedom of demonstration and assembly and press freedom. TMY operations have no credibility at all with unfounded allegations (...) like 'membership of a terrorist organization' and 'directing an illegal organization'".

The TGDP claimed, "The incidents just show once more how anti-democratic the TMY actually is. The Anti-Terror Law should be abolished". (YY)