Dawn raids on journalists in Turkey still continue despite human rights action plan

*Raid on Özgür Gündem journalists

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"We don't want our citizens to be deprived of freedom just because of arrest warrants for taking statements. With the Action Plan, we are ending practices such as apprehension and detention outside working hours or detaining people at hotels at midnight. Proceedings for taking statements will now be done 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Statement on the Human Rights Action Plan / March 2, 2021

It has been more than 14 months since the president said these words. In 14 months, people like Sedef Kabaş, Vildan Atmaca, Kadri Esen, Ayşen Şahin, Emre Orman, Nurcan Yalçın, Hikmet Tunç, Zeynep Durgut, Emrullah Acar, İbrahim Haskoloğlu, Mir Ali Koçer, Hasan Tolga Balcılar, and Hayri Tunç, were detained in house raids.

The common point of them was being a journalist. Homes of some were raided at dawn, some were raided at night. There was even a journalist whose home was raided three times in one week: Hasan Tolga Balcılar. What did he do? A report on corruption!

Another person who was detained in a morning raid: Kadri Esen. His home was raided on April 15 as part of an operation based in Diyarbakır. He was detained. After being held in custody for one day and one night, he was released. But he was not at home during the raid, his landlord was.

"When the police carried out the raid, I was staying at my friend's home in the same apartment building. I had just left the flat I was renting. My landlord and their spouse had replaced me.

"Consequently, the police raided my former landlord's home. I was later called by the doorkeeper of the building. When I went downstairs, a group of police officers were at the door of my old apartment. They had also entered the apartment.

"I went to them and asked what happened. They said, 'We have come for you. You change your address and don't notify us.' And I said, 'If you had called, I would have come.'

"When I asked them about the reason, they said, 'Newroz investigation.' Then I was put in a Ural type vehicle and we went to the police station.

"After I was released, I went to my former landlord and apologized. I said, 'They had come for this reason. Sorry.' They were very understanding. They said they were not disturbed at all and they felt sorry for me more than themselves.

"I am a journalist and, before the raid, I was summoned to give a statement a couple of times because of my Twitter posts. I went to the Security Directorate each time they called me and gave my statements.

"There was no need at all to come in the morning while no one woke up yet and carry out a house raid. If they had called me, I would have gone and given a statement, anyway. The matter is not a Newroz investigation or anything, it is intimidating journalists and oppressing the people."

It can't be done legally

Kadri Esen is neither the first nor the last example. Especially in the Eastern and Southeastern Regions, we hear several reports on journalists detained during house raids every month. But what does the law say?

According to lawyer Ömer Kavili, orders to bring people by force cannot be issued directly. Articles 145 and 146 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CMK) regulate this.

The mentioned articles include "summons for a statement or interrogation" and "bringing by force." Kavili says, "If the matter is not a catalog crime, there must be a summons for a statement."

"Otherwise it is lawlessness, breaking the law, destroying personal freedom. And doing this by the hands of judges and prosecutors," he says, adding, "First, a notification is sent. If the person does not come despite that, only then a decision for bringing by force can be issued. But the way to do this is not raiding homes at midnight.

"The police station of the neighborhood knows people more or less. In this regard, raiding people's homes at midnight, saying, 'I am enforcing the decision to bring by force' is an abuse of power. Sociologically, it is power poisoning. It is proof that those who hold political power are poisoned by the power.

"Erdoğan said they would put an end to this with the Human Rights Action Plan. One year has panned. What happened? Nothing has changed. Those working in the Ministry of Justice or the Ministry of Interior have not complied with this.

"This has no place in the rule of law. This is destroying the hierarchy within the state. Because, after the president made such a statement for the security of the people, it was expected to be complied with.

"Prosecutors or the police do not have the right and the authority to violate the word of the president, who is the head of the government. At this point, the hierarchy and state authority have been destroyed in the state." (HA/VK)