Letter from jailed media workers
Letter from jailed media workers
We publish a letter sent out by the media workers in Kandýra and Bakýrköy prison. Thirty six free press workers are in prison since 20 December. They had been arrested in the context of the so called KCK (Kurdish Communities Union) operation.
Those who knocked at our door that morning knew us well, and we knew them very well too… We acquainted ourselves with them from the addressed and unaddressed bullets they shoot on streets, from devilish arm breakings in front of cameras, from the lives of women and children that they make miserable while practicing the instructions they receive and from the pages of Turkey’s 30-year and even 80-year old dark history…We know them as the executers of the Kurdish hunting which has targeted lawyers, politicians, elected representatives, human rights defenders and women for the last three years with a perception that “the best Kurd you can’t kill is the jailed one”…And they knew us as the inheritors of Musa Anter, Gurbetelli Ersöz, Nazým Babaoðlu, Yahya Orhan, Metin Göktepe and many other dozens of press martyrs...
Saying that “nothing will remain in darkness”, we uncovered the dark executors of the dark history; we became the voice of the identity, culture and language of a people… In contrast to plaza medias, we grounded on the people, not on police informers who hid behind police in demonstrations and activities…
We sat up all night with mothers who asked for “peace” along the borders till morning hours; we were beside those who gathered torn apart bodies on mountains; we were the mourning of mothers who were looking for the bones of their beloved ones in mass graves…We were those who exposed the state which committed a crime against humanity by using chemical weapons in Besta, Zap, Tatvan and Kazan Valley…
We were the voice of laborers who took to the streets for the right to work as union members and against minimum wage; we were the voice of scientists who loudly voiced that they were “becoming poor and facing low standards of living” in contradiction to those defending that the economic crisis was tangent to us…We stood by the villagers in Black Sea region who refused to give their land to HPPs against those who made benefits available to the companies that destroy the nature…
We were the scream of women in the face of woman slaughters made by the patriarchal mentality that advised people to make three children… We stood by villagers who were dispossessed of their lands with a quota system and farmers who were condemned to hunger when disallowed to cultivate…
We were bombed and killed yesterday, and we are judged and arrested today… We were aware of this game since the very beginning, like turkeys voting for Christmas… The first stage of the performance, whose script was written by Prime Minister and Interior Minister, was put on the stage at security directorate for 72 hours. We were “invited” to community talks which imposed the AKP law, not the law. With these invitations, we were abused and declared as the “committee” a structure with “balloon schemes”. The second stage of this tragicomic performance continued at the court. In a way ignorant of basic journalism principles, prosecutors who are appointed with inflated files subjected us to a “deep” interrogation over the news we made and their sources. We were asked why we had made those new, like a question asked to a doctor “why you treated this patient”. Despite the openness of the work we did, we were criminalized with the testimonies of “secret witnesses” about whose existence we can never be sure. The final stage of the performance continued at the court (at least for now) where judges arrested us, confessing that “they had no initiative”. Samanyolu TV presented the owner of this initiative by reporting the number of arrested journalist half an hour before the arrest decision of the court. In short, we have been unable to do our work because of PM Erdoðan’s instruction, “reputed” Interior Minister Naim Þahin’s “terror” framework, the AKP police hunting fearless journalists and the decision of the court which cannot go beyond a walk-on role.
The best answer for the question “Why the Kurdish press was targeted” is the fact that Roboski slaughter was reported by the plaza media nine hours after the reports of the Kurdish press…
We hereby make the following call to all our colleagues; we shouldn’t forget that we as journalists are the public colleague against governments…We expect you to join your voice with ours before this fire burns you as well…
Those who knocked at our door that morning knew us well, and we knew them very well too… We acquainted ourselves with them from the addressed and unaddressed bullets they shoot on streets, from devilish arm breakings in front of cameras, from the lives of women and children that they make miserable while practicing the instructions they receive and from the pages of Turkey’s 30-year and even 80-year old dark history…We know them as the executers of the Kurdish hunting which has targeted lawyers, politicians, elected representatives, human rights defenders and women for the last three years with a perception that “the best Kurd you can’t kill is the jailed one”…And they knew us as the inheritors of Musa Anter, Gurbetelli Ersöz, Nazým Babaoðlu, Yahya Orhan, Metin Göktepe and many other dozens of press martyrs...
Saying that “nothing will remain in darkness”, we uncovered the dark executors of the dark history; we became the voice of the identity, culture and language of a people… In contrast to plaza medias, we grounded on the people, not on police informers who hid behind police in demonstrations and activities…
We sat up all night with mothers who asked for “peace” along the borders till morning hours; we were beside those who gathered torn apart bodies on mountains; we were the mourning of mothers who were looking for the bones of their beloved ones in mass graves…We were those who exposed the state which committed a crime against humanity by using chemical weapons in Besta, Zap, Tatvan and Kazan Valley…
We were the voice of laborers who took to the streets for the right to work as union members and against minimum wage; we were the voice of scientists who loudly voiced that they were “becoming poor and facing low standards of living” in contradiction to those defending that the economic crisis was tangent to us…We stood by the villagers in Black Sea region who refused to give their land to HPPs against those who made benefits available to the companies that destroy the nature…
We were the scream of women in the face of woman slaughters made by the patriarchal mentality that advised people to make three children… We stood by villagers who were dispossessed of their lands with a quota system and farmers who were condemned to hunger when disallowed to cultivate…
We were bombed and killed yesterday, and we are judged and arrested today… We were aware of this game since the very beginning, like turkeys voting for Christmas… The first stage of the performance, whose script was written by Prime Minister and Interior Minister, was put on the stage at security directorate for 72 hours. We were “invited” to community talks which imposed the AKP law, not the law. With these invitations, we were abused and declared as the “committee” a structure with “balloon schemes”. The second stage of this tragicomic performance continued at the court. In a way ignorant of basic journalism principles, prosecutors who are appointed with inflated files subjected us to a “deep” interrogation over the news we made and their sources. We were asked why we had made those new, like a question asked to a doctor “why you treated this patient”. Despite the openness of the work we did, we were criminalized with the testimonies of “secret witnesses” about whose existence we can never be sure. The final stage of the performance continued at the court (at least for now) where judges arrested us, confessing that “they had no initiative”. Samanyolu TV presented the owner of this initiative by reporting the number of arrested journalist half an hour before the arrest decision of the court. In short, we have been unable to do our work because of PM Erdoðan’s instruction, “reputed” Interior Minister Naim Þahin’s “terror” framework, the AKP police hunting fearless journalists and the decision of the court which cannot go beyond a walk-on role.
The best answer for the question “Why the Kurdish press was targeted” is the fact that Roboski slaughter was reported by the plaza media nine hours after the reports of the Kurdish press…
We hereby make the following call to all our colleagues; we shouldn’t forget that we as journalists are the public colleague against governments…We expect you to join your voice with ours before this fire burns you as well…
