Oğuz Güven: Had there been a coup I would have been detained, too

Editor-in-Chief of cumhuriyet.com.tr, Oğuz Güven, who has been detained in Silivri Prison for nineteen days, has sent the message, ‘Their real aim is to silence Cumhuriyet and the opposition. Had the attempted coup succeeded, we would have been detained, too.’

Independent Ankara MP Aylin Nazlıaka visited Oğuz Güven in Silivri Prison where he is being detained. Güven, emphasising that the intent read by the prosecutor into the Twitter message cited as grounds for detention did not even cross their minds, stressed that we had reached a stage at which a new crime of ‘reading intention’ had come into being. Güven sent the following message to his colleagues and our readers:

‘If a price is to be paid, so be it. But this affair is very strange! I have nothing to be ashamed of. I will look into my children’s and grandchildren’s eyes with my head held high, my honour intact and with pride. However, I am curious as to how those who hold the law in contempt, invent crimes and blunt their consciences under instruction will look into their children’s and grandchildren’s eyes! Those who sentenced Nâzım Hikmet despite being innocent to 27 years’ imprisonment and kept him in jail for thirteen years have spent their time cursing history. Nâzım Hikmet still lives on honourably in hearts and on tongues. With us today fighting for freedom of expression and freedom of thought, we stand charged of a new kind of crime for which Sedat Ergin has coined a name: reading intention! Contrary to what the prosecutor alleges, no intention even vaguely crossed my mind in the slightest in the report that has led to my detention. Our aim in this report was to draw attention to the suspicion of assassination. Since this is an expression that is frequently used with traffic accidents and was raised with my colleague who watched the footage saying: ‘Brother, the lorry well and truly mowed him down,’ this was a headline that was posted for an instant. Despite this headline being deleted within 55 seconds as soon as the report became visible, given that with the exclusion of the word ‘vehicle’ on Twitter this could have led to misunderstanding, the affair has gone as far as detention. Of course, their real aim is to silence and cow Cumhuriyet and those staging opposition. Had the Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organisation’s attempted coup succeeded, I would have been detained, too, because I was against it and in opposition! And now, using the Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organisation as a pretext, all the opposition that has no connection with the Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organisation is being detained on peculiar grounds that are not part of the law. Let it be known that my heart is totally unburdened! My only concern that that my grandson Aren is annoyed with me because he can’t see me. Apart from that, I am firmly on my feet and will continue to tell the truth.’

Pretext of the state of emergency

Nazlıaka, conveying her impressions to our paper, stated that Güven is in good spirits and health and said, ‘He has a sense of conviction that comes from being in the right, but the restrictions imposed under the pretext of the state of emergency have turned into torture. The pretext of the state of emergency and arbitrary practices would appear to be just fine for the AKP.’ Nazlıaka, stating that Güven is rightly questioning the continued failure for the indictment to be drafted, stressed that, with the indictment into the person who defamed Atatürk being drafted in one week and his being released, the prevailing arbitrariness is laid bare. Nazlıaka, stating that detention had turned into a punishment for people in the opposition, voiced the following views: ‘The AKP’s judiciary has been created to invent crimes. They want to rain down charges on all members of the press under instructions fashioned on the same lathe and create an environment of self-censorship in the media. Certain people appear to have forgotten, but let me remind them: this tradition in which the baton has been passed on by such people as Uğur Mumcu and Ahmet Taner Kışlalı and countless honourable pen-wielders will not be silent and cannot be silenced!’