We made news - they looked for “messages”

Cumhuriyet only has one duty and that is journalism. We are here because of our news, columns and commentaries. If we are successful, then we are happy and if we do not succeed, then, we will be rightfully criticized and we would like to hear these criticisms. We usually do not have good relations with those in power. The endless investigations, inquiries, and lawsuit, what happened to us during the Ergenekon conspiracies are evidence of this fact.

We are used to this and we will not give up

Since October 31st, we are under a new and significant attack. Thirteen of our friends are imprisoned in Silivri, without any evidence against them. Their aim is apparent and very clear, they are trying to make us give up since they could not bring us down to our knees.

To prepare for this attack, a group of liars who support the partisan media members have been telling the same lies since the news of the MIT (Turkish Central Intelligence Agency) trucks were exposed. They have been claiming that our newspapers have ties to FETÖ and are being financially supported by them. They are following in the footsteps of Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, who said: “Tell a lie, there will be someone who believes it.” Because of this, they wrote many articles, made several programs but could not show any evidence of guilt. The state came to inspect us many times but again they could not find any evidence of guilt. They can’t find it because it does not exist.

There is a newspaper only concerned with journalism and only has revenues from advertisements and sales (because of this always having financial problems). Consequently, the lies had to be diversified. They searched through our archives and plucked a few news articles out of thousands and claimed: “you promoted FETÖ and PKK with these.” There is nothing but journalism in these news articles. Unfortunately, Nazi Goes is living inside of these liars: “The more you repeat a lie, the more people will believe in these lies.” In the same way, they stubbornly continued their accusations without showing any evidence.

The prosecution, who could not find any evidence against Cumhuriyet, included these claims in the indictments. Our criterion is determined neither the prosecutors nor those poor excuses for journalist, who look up to Goebbels. For us, only our readers matter and set the criterion for us. The news articles and commentaries which were claimed as propagandas for FETÖ and PKK are included below. We will let our readers decide for themselves.

Who is the expert witness?

During the fictionalized investigation with the aim to silence Cumhuriyet, the prosecution even used photographs (aside from the news and commentaries) as evidence of guilt. In the indictment, the news and commentaries used as accusations were determined by “the expert witness (whose area of expertise is not known),” Ünal Aldemir, and the security personnel. The prosecution assumed that the report by the “expert witness” was accurate and included it in the indictment. These news articles and commentaries, that are used as evidence of guilt by the prosecution and the judge in the arrest warrant are included below:

 The message in the Headlines

According to the expert witness report, Cumhuriyet’s headline on July 25, 2015 (one year before the July 15th coup attempt), “War at home, War in the world”, carried a “subliminal” message. The investigations and the indictments prepared after July 15th, tried to draw a similarity between the fact that the coup plotters called themselves “Peace at Home Council” and Ataturk’s famous saying, “Peace at home, peace in the world.” Moreover, it was pointing at the peace that is being forgotten both at home and abroad due to the end of the peace talks. The following was said: “while, the FETÖ coup plotters with the name “Peace at Home Council” were attempting a coup and the fact taht Cumhuriyet published headlines and subliminal messages many months prior, shows that they were part of the psychological movement.”

The danger on the streets

For the July 17, 2016 “The danger on the street” headline and the “photo” related to the President’s poster being hung on the tank: Cumhuriyet’s headline under scrutiny was to represent the concern felt by the public. While Cumhuriyet shared this concern, it never expressed any sentiments on telling the public there was “danger” to go out on the streets to fight against the coup. On the contrary, it was stressing the fact that the disconcerting events during this time were caused by some people who were not part of the group fighting against the coup. Moreover, Cumhuriyet issued a warning that these group’s actions were undermining the democratic efforts.

Lack of democracy

To make news about the Yenikapi Rally with a headline of “Lack of Democracy”: The CHP (Republican People’s Party), many politicians and commentators voiced that to not invite the HDP (People’s Democratic Party) to the Yenikapi Rally was a major deficiency. Cumhuriyet also saw the lack of HDP as an inadequacy, but did not use a phrase that would "target" the rally. In the news about the Yenikapi rally, people in the area were defined as "millions of citizens who opposed the coup" and emphasized the large crowd that was present.

The News of the MIT trucks

The news that led to the 5 year prison sentence of Can Dundar was viewed by the court as "publishing of confidential documents". The Constitutional Court ruled that the accusation was in fact only part of journalistic activity and decided that Dündar and Erdem Gül, who was also tried with him, should be released. The principle that "people can not be punished twice because of the same act", which is one of the most basic principles of the law, was violated and they tried to add this MIT related news to the investigation, one more time.

 The column

Regarding the column of Aydin Engin on 13th July 2016, “Peace in the world, well what about at home?” (referring to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s motto “Peace at home, peace in the world”): The members of 15th July coup attempt declared their name to be “Peace at Home Council” when they made an announcement on TRT (Turkish Radio and Television ). Aydin Engin wrote this column 2 days before the coup attempt and they tried to create a relation between the title of this column and the name of the coup group. In fact, Aydin Engin was just asking whether the peaceful policies discussed as part of the foreign relations could be exercised internally as well. This news was just a call for peace but was blamed for endorsing “terrorism”. The report of the expert witness stated that we must pay attention to the fact that his column titled “Peace in the word, but what about at home?” was written as if he was aware of the “Peace at Home Council”. The fact that this column was written 2 days before the coup attempt was claimed to be an attribution to the night of 15th July.” The expert witness’s statements to Aydin Engin indicating that “he was aware of” and “allegedly knew” were indeed very interesting. These statements were confirming the weakness of the allegations of the expert witness. The expert witness also alleged that Aydin Engin used the expression “cemaat” (a word which describes the community of Fettullah Gulen) instead of “FETÖ” which has been described as a terrorist organization by the National Security Institution and independent courts, and tried to use this fact as a basis for an accusation against Engin. The definition of “FETÖ” has been popular after the coup attempt on 15th July, however even some partisan writers still continue to use the word “cemaat”.

 The subliminal Absurdity

Kadri Gursel’s column titled “Erdogan wants to be our father” on July 12th: In his column, Gursel was explaining that Erdogan wants to be the father of his country and conveyed that even if there was no other factor, he would be destroying himself on his own within the political environment. They brought a tragicomic accusation against Kadri Gursel by following the report which tries to find a subliminal message in his column. According to the prosecutors, Kadri Gursel tried to create a perception for an authoritarianism in Turkey by attacking the President’s personality. At the time Kadri Gursel published this column, most of the people in Turkey were asking similar questions like: “is there anyone left who thinks that there is no authoritarian regime in Turkey?” or “Is stating our opinion or criticizing the president a crime?”. After the imprisonment of our writer Kadri Gursel due to this column, such questions have become unnecessary because everybody is now sure about the answers.

Basements of Cizre

 The news about the tragedy in Cizre’s basements titled “Attack on the basement, tens of dead”: This article was describing the facts obtained from the military resources and the claims by the HDP (People’s Democratic Party) spokesmen. This story on the human rights violations had been supported by information from the governmental resources. The tradition of accusation continued here and they used this news story on the human rights violations as an accusation for terrorist propaganda. Not only the news and articles, but even the photos were used as evidence of guilt. They used the partisan newspapers as examples and gave us the message of “why don't you use headlines like them?” Huseyin described the news of human rights violations coming from southeastern region of Turkey as “worrisome” and called for an independent investigation. Huseyin also stated that he reached information from trustworthy sources about the violations in Cizre and the consequence was “seriously alarming” if the information he obtained is factual. European Court of Human Rights also made precautionary decisions for the incidents in Cizre.

Razed Nusaybin

The news of “Razed Nusaybin” was relying on a photo which shows the city’s fully destroyed face. This news story described the following: “Yuksekova, Sur, Cizre, Sirnak. And now Nusaybin. They all have the same view. Devastated cities after the military operations and skirmish. While the security forces were leaving from the area after finalizing the operations which started against the PKK on 14th March, Turkish flags were hung on many buildings” Mainly, the news article which described the devastation in that area by a photo had been considered the subject of accusation.

 Why are you not like them?

Several headlines which had been published after the July 15th coup attempt, were also included in the indictment. They put the headlines of Star, Ortadoğu, Akşam, Vatan, Güneş, Habertürk, Hürriyet, Karar, Takvim, Türkiye, Yeni Şafak, Sözcü and Diriliş Postası into the lawsuit files to compare with Cumhuriyet’s headlines on the same day. Thus, the message was clear: “ Why don’t you use headlines like the other newspapers?”

 The Hidden Headline

There were several headlines of Cumhuriyet after the coup attempt that were included in the file such as: “Turkey took a jab”, “The danger in the streets”, “The Witch Hunt started” and “The secret of the coup” but they never included the “The Solution is Democracy” headline which was published on July 16, 2016.

 Do not write about the torture

One of the captions of Cumhuriyet, included in the file, was “I was scared, I kept silent about the torture” which was taken from the report of HRW ( Human Rights Watch). To make news from the report of HRW about the allegations of torture during the State of Emergency made them uncomfortable.

 News about Fuat Avni

It was also an offense to make some news about the tweets which were posted by Twitter user Fuat Avni before the coup attempt on July 15th. In fact, almost all of the Turkish media made news about this user and described this account as an information collector and distributor who obtained his data from the components of FETO in the state entities. This account which announced some inquiries and operations before the confirmation by the state, was reported to have hundred thousands of followers.

 The Case of Hursit Kulter

Most of the media as well as Cumhuriyet made news about Hursit Kulter, member of DBP (The Platform of Democratic Regions) who was allegedly lost while in custody. The Human Rights Organizations, Saturday Mothers, DBP and HDP were making statements about the allegations of his disappearance while in custody. Hursit Kulter showed up in Northern Iraq and Cumhuriyet also made news about this and continued to report on the discussions which started in the public domain after finding him. Prosecution preferred to charge Cumhuriyet despite this.

*Crime of thought