Kurds Outraged about Racist Newspaper Article

The article "Satellite dish terrorism in the south-east" written by journalist Candaş Tolga Işık caused protest actions from the west to the east of the country. The article was published in the Posta newspaper, part of the Doğan Media Group, on 27 January. Protestors in Istanbul (west coast), Ankara (central Anatolia), Batman (south-east) and several other provinces addressed both journalist Işık and the Doğan Media Group.

The national professional press organizations remained silent on the article for now. During a protest action in Batman on the other hand, Ayla Akat Ata, Member of Parliament for the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), admonished, "Where are you especially, media ethic groups?"

Demonstrations and police intervention

Hundreds of people gathered in front of the newspaper's building in İkitelli/Istanbul on Monday (30 January) upon the call of the South-Eastern Associations Federation. They protested the media group by booing and shouting slogans.

BDP Deputy for Batman Bengi Yıldız, Provincial Co-Chair Mustafa Avcı and Abdulhakim Daş, President of the South-Eastern Associations Federation, entered the building to talk to the newspaper executives.

Subsequently, Yıldız announced, "We are protesting the racist and fascist attitude of this media institution and its clowns. We expect the monster called Candaş and the editor-in-chief who published this writing to be suspended immediately. This is also an offence of the media group. We call on the entire Doğan Media Group to apologize to the Kurds".

After the announcement, tension occurred between the demonstrators and the police. Some protestors threw stones at the building. The police intervened with tear gas and water cannons installed on "Riot Vehicles" (TOMA).

"Article constitutes hate crime"

At a protest action in front of the provincial representation of the Posta newspaper in Ankara, the President of the Eastern and South-Eastern Anatolia Platform (DGAP), Abdul Nasır Çetin, said, "The writing was aimed for provocation and its timing is very significant".

Çetin claimed that the article constituted a hate crime: "People of the region along with people all over the country who are using satellite dishes have been stigmatized as molesters and consumers of porn", he said. He conveyed the DGAP's demand for the immediate resignation of the writer, editor and the daily's general publications director. Otherwise, a campaign to boycott the press group's sales in the region would be initiated, Çetin declared.

MP Ata: Media ethic groups, where are you?

In Batman, members of the BDP Women Assembly gathered in front of the BDP provincial building and set off for a protest march to condemn the newspaper. They carried banners reading, "Apologize, immoral Candaş".

Assembly member Asiye Akın read out a statement at the end of the protest march. She announced that they were going to boycott all publication organs of the Doğan group as long as they would not have apologized in the headline of the Posta newspaper. She also called on "all sensitive sections of society".

A group of writers in Şanlıurfa (south-eastern Turkey) filed a criminal complaint at the Şanlıurfa Courthouse against journalist Işık, general publications director Rıfat Ababay and the newspaper's management. After that, they expressed their protest by burning a copy of the Posta newspaper in front of the courthouse.

When the article was removed from publication, Işık apologized by saying that he has "never been a racist and an enemy of the Kurds". (EÇ/EÖ/VK)

* Sources: Akşam newspaper, Fırat News Agency.