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The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has opened two separate investigations against journalst and Workers Party of Turkey (TİP) deputy Ahmet Şık.
One of the investigations concerns his comments about mob boss Sedat Peker's online confessions on mafia-state relations in Turkey.
Interviewed by fellow journalist Ruşen Çakır on Medyascope TV, Şık said, "I was always called 'the man who called the state a murderer.' Yes, brother, the state is a murderer. Those who were angry at me because I said this now watch videos of Sedat Peker where he tells the state is a murderer and say 'Oh yeah?' or applaud him.
"Yes, the state of Turkey is a murderer, that's it. Just as the other states of the world... The history of all states is bloody. Turkey is not independent of that."
The other investigation has been opened into Şık's remarks during a program on TELE1 TV ahead of the March 2019 local elections.
"Let me be clear, if the AKP [the ruling Justice and Development Party] and this ruling bloc are patriots and I'm a terrorist, I welcome terrorists rather than being a patriot like them," he had said during the program. "Every policy that would weaken this ruling power, everything to break its canine teeth, to pull its grinder teeth are justified."
Reacting to the investigations on Twitter, Şık said, "If I'm to be criticized/tried because of my statement that the state is a killer, this should be for my deficient assessment. Because the state is a murderer that commits serial murders. There is no state that doesn't have blood in its hands."
Mob boss Sedat Peker, formerly a pro-government figure living abroad since late 2019, has been releasing videos on YouTube about the mafia-state relations in Turkey for a month. He has accused former and current government officials and AKP members of international drug trafficking, political assassinations, murder, corruption and other wrongdoing.
In 2011, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office had decided not to prosecute six people who had been detained for chanting the slogan "The murderer state will be held accountable." Citing ECtHR precedents, it had said actions that don't encourage people to resort to violence or armed insurgency should be considered within the scope of freedom of expression.
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(HA/VK)
