59 people were detained at a protest held on Saturday at Şişhane Square in central Istanbul following the killing of two Kurdish journalists, Nazım Daştan and Cihan Bilgin, in a drone strike targeting a vehicle in northern Syria on Thursday -9 of them, including 7 journalists have since been placed under arrest.
The journalists arrested are Gülistan Dursun, Can Papila, Pınar Gayıp, Serpil Ünal, Hayri Tunç, Enes Sezgin and Osman Akın, with Haci Ugiş and İmam Şenol also arrested.
Journalists Zeynep Kuray, Yadigar Aygün, Mahsum Sağlam were released under judicial control.
The journalists placed under arrest sent the following message via their lawyers:
“‘Palaces and sultanates will crumble/This blood will fall silent one day, and the tyranny will end/What will remain from today will be those who resisted, and the Nazıms and Cihans’ [a variation on Adnan Yücel’s poem, “Until the Face of the Earth is the Face of Love”]’ The Dicle Fırat Journalists’ Association is a press organization. We shall in no way allow it to be criminalized. Journalism is not a crime.”
(EMK/NHRD)
