Türkiye Haberleri

Presidential Palace-Supported Assault Against Cumhuriyet Foundation

Cumhuriyet’s request for university-based expert team is denied and elections for the foundation’s management team is annulled.

cumhuriyet.com.tr

Yayınlanma: 02.06.2017 - 15:41

Güncelleme: 05.06.2017 - 15:44

General Directorate for Foundations recognized Cumhuriyet’s stand in the foundation case, but it changed its stance upon a petition submitted to the Presidential office (The Palace)

Prosecutor used the board of director’s election for the Cumhuriyet Foundation as one of the most important means to silence Cumhuriyet. Candidates who lost in the elections took the results to court, which was used by the prosecutors as a basis for criminal investigation on Cumhuriyet. Prosecutors who detained Cumhuriyet Foundation’s newly elected board members claimed that “Cumhuriyet Foundation was captured fraudulently and its editorial policy was changed as a result”. Prosecutors relied on statements of those who were not elected to the editorial board, including Alev Coskun who is currently a columnist in Aydinlik Newspaper and Mustafa Balbay, who is a CHP deputy. Coskun and his attorney Namik Kemal Boya informed the prosecutors while the Cumhuriyet’s editorial board members were being detained.

General Directorate for Foundations changed its initial stance on recognizing the Cumhuriyet Foundation’s rightfulness based on an anonymous petition submitted to the President’s office which was appealing this initial decision. All of a sudden, this petition caused the General Directorate’s to change its stance and come up with reports that conflict with its initial evaluation on the case.

Atalay has warned: “They want to seize the newspaper in with the support from the Palace”

Akin Atalay, has previously made the following statement on his Twitter account when the correspondence between the Presidential General Secretary and the General Directorate for Foundations:

“As a last resort, some people contacted the Palace in Bestepe, and told them that the Palace’s intervention is their last hope to recapture the power from Cumhuriyet’s current editorial board. Upon this request, President’s office contacted the General Directorate for Foundations in pursuit of this intervention. When the General Directorate for Foundations received that directions from the Palace, they immediately took action regardless of their previous auditing, and arranged a new report that utterly contradicts with their initial evaluation on the case. This new evaluation has no legal validity. What is really saddening is that some greedy individuals who present themselves as patriotic Kemalists and respected by the general public because of their former affiliation with the Cumhuriyet newspaper acted based on their personal interests instead of their conscience. What kind of mentality can explain this dirty alliance with the Palace to recapture the power in Cumhuriyet Newspaper’s editorial board? This idea of “Palace-approved Kemalist Cumhuriyet Newspaper” is absurd. We won’t let you to take hold of this newspaper with the sponsorship of the Palace. In order to do that you will need to get involved with further scandals and infamy.”