Journalists in İstanbul express solidarity with arrested Kurdish journalists

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"We won't explain that our friends are journalists, because they were arrested because they are journalists. The operation carried out with baseless claims and mise-en-scene is obvious."

These words are from a demonstration for solidarity with the 16 journalists who were arrested last week in the predominantly Kurdish-populated province of Diyarbakır.

Journalists wanted the release of their colleagues at the event organized by the Mezopotamya Women Journalists Platform (MKGP) and the Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG).

Members of the DİSK Press Union and the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA), as well as Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Musa Piroğlu were among those who attended the demonstration.

Showing pictures of their arrested colleagues, journalists chanted slogans, "Oppression can't intimidate the press" and "Free press, free country."

Reading out a statement, Diren Yurtsever, an editor for Mezopotamya Agency (MA), said the government is in a crisis and intends to intimidate the entire society.

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"The ruling power, which is trying to reinforce its power through elections and warmongering, aims to intimidate the media that it cannot control," she said. "For these exact reasons, on June 8, a day that will go down in history as a shame and disgrace, 20 Kurdish laborers of the free press were detained. After eight days in detention, our 16 friends were arrested unfairly and unlawfully. As if it wasn't enough, the pro-government media targeted our friends with mise-en-scenes and fiction.

"We won't explain that our friends are journalists, because they were arrested because they are journalists. The operation carried out with baseless claims and mise-en-scene is obvious. What is being targeted is not only our friends, it's not only their freedom and journalism, or journalism itself! It's much more than that!"

"Systematic arrests"

Speaking after the statement, Candan Yıldız of the DİSK Press Union said the arrests are not only the Kurds' problems, as the "censorship bill" discussed in the parliament is not only journalists' problem.

"Journalists are fighting for the right to information in Turkey's east and west. They are fighting for Berkin [Elvan], Ceylan [Önkol], human rights, to show what is not wanted to be shown. And then they face oppression and get arrested.

"Journalists in the region are faced with a systematic state policy. In the '90s, they were killed, now, they are systematically arrested. All efforts to tell the truth to the people will pay off. We stand with our Kurdish journalist friends."

"They can't stop reporting"

HDP deputy Musa Piroğlu said, "They try to silence the Kurdish press. Sixteen journalists faced the oppression of the state because they convened the truth to the people. And this oppression was reflected in the censorship law. Just as the imprisonment of Kurdish journalists is not only the Kurds' problem, what is brought to the parliament is not only the journalists' problem.

"They are trying to silence as a whole. Those who cannot stop reporting are trying to arrest those who report. If the press is silenced, then the people are silenced and blindfolded. The struggle of the free press has never stopped. They showed us that the oppression had spread to the entire country, but we have shown since Ape Musa and the bombed newspaper that we are not defeated. You can't turn down our voice, you can't make us bow down." (HA/VK)