Turkish police arrest more journalists on alleged terror charges

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish police have raided the Ankara-based offices of a media group critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a day after two British reporters were jailed on controversial terror charges, The Guardian reports.

The raids on Koza-Ipek Media sparked fresh concern about press freedom in Turkey, which is gearing for snap legislative elections in November, the second in five months.

Six people were arrested and a warrant issued for the conglomerate’s chief executive, Akin Ipek, who was thought to be in Britain, the state-run Anatolia news agency said, according to The Guardian.

The raid on Tuesday, September 1, came a day after a court in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast ordered two British journalists working for US-based Vice News to be remanded in custody on terror charges.

Speaking on Kanalturk on Tuesday, Ipek denounced the operation as “baseless” and “funny”, adding: “If they [police] are able to find even a cent of illicit money I am ready to hand my company over to them.”

Ali Haydar Konca, Turkey’s new EU affairs minister from the Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), said the raids “cannot be justified”.

“I’m worried that operations targeting the media will create great concern across the world about the state of democracy in Turkey,” he added.