Message from Silivri: Unless measures are taken life in the country will be intolerable

CHP Istanbul Member of Parliament and Foreign Affairs Commission Member Oğuz Kaan Salıcı visited our paper’s Executive Board Chair Akın Atalay, Editor-in-Chief Murat Sabuncu, Editorial Consultant Kadri Gürsel, reporter Ahmet Şık and accounting employee Yunus Emre İper who are being held in detention in Silivri Prison. Kadri Gürsel, who sent a note to the outside via Salıcı, said that he was upset by events at Aysel Tuğluk’s mother’s funeral and identifying the culprits was important with Turkey’s future in mind.

Oğuz Kaan Salıcı visited the Cumhuriyet staff who are in detention in Silivri Prison the day before yesterday. Salıcı, conveying information about the visit, noted that the detained Cumhuriyet employees are in good spirits and said, “They say this indictment has collapsed. They are aware that this is a political trial. They state that the contradictions and shortcomings in the indictment were also seen by the public at the court.”

Salıcı indicated that Kadri Gürsel sent a note to the outside and he was in particular upset by events at Aysel Tuğluk’s mother’s funeral. Gürsel said the following in the note he sent to the outside via Salıcı: “I condemn with abhorrence the odious attack launched by a racist mob on Aysel Tuğluk’s mother’s funeral in Ankara and see the immediate apprehension and bringing before the judiciary of the perpetrators to be very important with Turkey’s future as a whole country in mind. I call on sincere, common-sense and conscientious contemplation to be given to the way in which Turkey has been turned into a country in which this attack could be staged. If this is not done and the necessary measures are not taken, I think Turkey may in the near future move away from being a country in which life is tolerable.”