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Turkish colonel, Journalist fired over Kurdish civilians
massacre |
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Turkish colonel, Journalist fired over
Kurdish civilians massacre
10.1.2012
By Ayla Albayrak - WSJ |
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Locals gather in front of the bodies of people who
were killed in a Turkish warplane attack in the Ortasu
village of Uludere, in the Sirnak province [Turkey
Kurdistan], on December 29, 2011. Turkish warplanes
killed 23 Kurdish villagers in an air strike near
the Iraqi Kurdistan border, Photo: EPA.
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January
10, 2012
ANKARA, — Fallout from the Turkish
military’s
killing of 35
Kurdish civilians in an air strike at the
Turkish-Iraqi border last month continues to claim
victims. A journalist said she was fired for her
coverage of the event and an officer involved was
relieved of his post.
The journalist, Ece Temelkuran, said she was fired
from her job as a columnist at the daily newspaper
Haberturk because of the critical stance she took on
the incident, in which Turkish air force jets killed
diesel fuel and cigarette smugglers, many of them
less than 17 years of age. The military said it
believed the smugglers were insurgents from the
outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
Turkey’s government has admitted that the military
made a mistake and the families of victims have been
offered compensation. But no official apology has
followed the deaths, pending a closed investigation.
Still, on Sunday Col. Huseyin Onur Guney, deputy
commander of a regiment in the district of Uludere,
where the air strike took place, was removed from
his post, according to the state Anadolu news
agency.
Ms. Temelkuran, in an interview published in
Friday’s edition of the Lebanese daily Al Akhram,
said her two last columns in Haberturk had proved
too much for the newspaper—or perhaps, for the
government.
“The prime minister a few days ago, just after the
massacre, (threatened) those who use the word
‘massacre,’ and I’ve been using it on Twitter and
social media,” said Ms. Temelkuran, who currently is
in Tunisia.
“The stand I took about… the massacre (of the 35
Kurdish civilians) was too strong for the mainstream
media to handle,” Ms. Temelkuran said.
A spokeswoman for Haberturk and the paper’s
editor-in-chief declined to comment either on what
Ms. Temelkuran said, or on whether she had been
fired due to government pressure over terrorism
coverage. Turkey,www.ekurd.net
the U.S. and the European Union list the PKK as a
terrorist organization.
In October, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
invited Turkish editors-in-chief and media owners to
a four-hour meeting, in which he asked them to
ensure that terrorism issues were covered “with more
responsibility” and “sensitivity.” The Turkish Press
Association, or TGF, called the meeting “an
extremely dangerous step” at a time when dismissals
and arrests of journalists, as well as the closure
of numerous websites, have triggered concern for
media freedoms in Turkey.
Apart from the Kurdish issue, Ms. Temelkuran has
also closely followed a trial of 13 people,
including investigative journalists, Nedim Sener and
Ahmet Sik, who are tried on charges of abetting a
terrorist plot to topple the government. Ms.
Temelkuran in her columns criticized the case and
the lengthy detention of Messrs. Sik and Sener
pending trial.
Ms. Temelkuran, whose career has spanned several
Turkish media organizations, said in the interview
that she would be surprised if another Turkish daily
would hire her now because she had now been “stamped
as persona non grata.” Media monitoring
organizations point to a recent spate of firings of
prominent journalists, including popular TV host
Banu Guven, as evidence that Turkey’s media is
heading to an era of self-censorship.
Turkey’s government has said it supports freedom of
the media and none of the just under 100
journalists, publishers and other media workers
currently in jail were arrested in connection with
their journalism.
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author or news agency,
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