Author and human rights activist Aslı Erdoğan detained
Renowned author and member of the editorial board of the temporarily closed Özgür Gündem newspaper Aslı Erdoğan has been detained today after her questioning at the police department. She is being charged with claims of ‘making propaganda of terrorist organization’; ‘being a member of the organization’; and ‘provoking the public’. She was referred to the court, and, then, detained.
During her questioning at the police department, Erdoğan said she ‘had no ties with the terrorist organization and did not accept any of the charges.’
After the closure of the Özgür Gündem newspaper and the police raid at its office building on August 16th, 24 journalists and Özgür Gündem staff members had been taken into custody; and, later, Aslı Erdoğan’s house, along with the houses of Özgür Gündem writer Ragıp Zarakolu and his son Sinan Zarakolu, had been raided. Aslı Erdoğan was taken into custody from her house.
Erdoğan’s articles in the newspaper and her membership in the publication’s editorial board have been shown as evidence. According to the reports of DİHA, while her file is kept confidential, her eight-page long testimony includes the following remarks: “I do not hold any authority to give any suggestion, idea, or order for the newspaper’s publication policy… I started writing articles in Radikal newspaper in the year of 1998. I left from there in 2001. For some time, I wrote articles in BirGün newspaper. I started writing in Radikal again in 2010. Then, five months later, I was dismissed. In the months of March, or April, of 2011, I began writing for Özgür Gündem. Since I’m in the field of literature, I have written 7 novels; and, they have been translated to 15 languages. My articles are also published in the literature journals of Fil and Kara Karga. I have no ties with any terrorist organization. The members of the editorial board have absolutely no intervention in who will write and how the publication policy will be. I am in the editorial as matter of form. I do not accept any of the charges I am being accused of.”
Sources: https://www.birgun.net/haber-