Turkey tells West "to mind your own business," jails 17 journalists

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey was on Saturday, July 30 holding 17 journalists on charges of "terror group" membership as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Western critics to "mind your own business" over a relentless crackdown following a failed coup, AFP reports.

But in a goodwill gesture two weeks after the July 15 coup bid, Erdogan also announced he was withdrawing thousands of lawsuits against individuals accused of insulting him.

Turkey has detained more than 18,000 people over the attempted putsch which has been blamed on the U.S.-based preacher Fethullah Gulen -- a charge he denies -- with the relentless crackdown sparking warnings from Brussels that Ankara's EU membership bid may be in danger.

Seventeen journalists remanded in custody by an Istanbul court over links to Gulen woke up in jails across the city on Saturday as international concern grows over the targeting of reporters in the wake of the putsch.

Twenty-one journalists had appeared before a judge in hearings lasting until midnight on Friday. Four were then freed but 17 were placed under pre-trial arrest, charged with "membership of a terror group", the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

Those held include the veteran journalist Nazli Ilicak as well as the former correspondent for the pro-Gulen Zaman daily Hanim Busra Erdal, AFP says.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu defended the detention of reporters, saying it was necessary to distinguish between coup plotters and those "who are engaged in real journalism".