Turkey arrests novelist Aslı Erdoğan over ‘terror’ charges

ISTANBUL

A Turkish court arrested prize-winning novelist Aslı Erdoğan on Aug. 19 over alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), three days after she and two dozen more staff from the Özgür Gündem newspaper were detained. 

Erdoğan was detained with other employees of the newspaper after a court this week ordered it closed for allegedly engaging in propaganda of the PKK. Most were released but two other workers also face charges. 

Erdoğan, a member of Özgür Gündem’s advisory board, was sent to a jail in Istanbul on preliminary charges of "membership of terrorist organisation" and "undermining national unity.” 

Police raided the building of Özgür Gündem, which has been repeatedly closed down in the past, on Aug. 16 after it was “temporarily” shut down. 

The editor-in-chief of the daily, correspondents from imc TV and Dicle News Agency (DİHA) were among those detained.

The decision of closure, the raid and detentions were met with criticism from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the Journalists Union of Turkey (TGS) and DİSK Basın-İş, the press workers’ union of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DİSK), also criticized the decision to shut the paper down.