JINHA

AMED – After Turkish police raided the office of news agency Dicle News Agency and Kurdish newspaper Azadiya Welat yesterday, journalists have called for solidarity from all their colleagues.

Yesterday evening, Turkish police raided the Diyarbakır building that houses the headquarters of Dicle News Agency; newspaper Azadiya Welat; publishing house Aram; and Kurdish language education center Kurdî-Der. Police herded the journalists, students and teachers into the building’s basement, then took 32 individuals to the police department’s Anti-Terror office. Journalists and supporters from across the city flooded to the building for a sit-in, demanding that the journalists be releaed. After seven hours, police released the journalists late last night.

Dicle News Agency News Director Dicle Müftüoğlu noted that the police raid was only the most recent state attack on the agency since July 24. The state first ordered that the agency’s website be blocked in Turkey minutes before Turkish jets began bombing Kurdish guerrilla-held areas in July. Last night, on the order of the Prime Minister’s Security Office, the agency’s website was shut down in Turkey for the 20th time in two months. Many shutdowns coincided with the agency breaking important news about rights violations by the state.

“The goal is to stop us from presenting the facts as they are,” said Dicle. She explained that police armed with rifles entered the building without a warrant, claiming “reasonable suspicion” as a justification for the search. Two hours later, after lawyers objected to the illegal search, police produced a document justifying the raid by saying that it was related to an armed attack that took place on nearby Elazığ Avenue. However, the document had been approved 10 minutes before the armed attack occurred.
“Something else interesting is that when we were detained, they searched us for gunshot residue. They treated us not like journalists, but like murderers,” said Dicle. Dicle issued a all for solidarity from journalists.

“It’s not right to see attacks on the press as just targeting a few individuals; the raid and detention done to us yesterday was in fact done to all of the press,” said Dicle. She noted that just as Dicle News Agency reporters had continued producing news in spite of years of similar attacks, they would continue now. “So we’re hoping to see all people working in the press be in solidarity with us.”

(bc/gc/cm)