Murat Sabuncu, chief editor of Cumhuriyet, talks to friends and readers outside his newspaper’s headquarters in Istanbul in this Jan. 18, 2015 file photo (AP PHOTO).
ISTANBUL — Turkish police detained the chief editor and at least 11 senior staff of Turkey’s opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper on Monday, a move that signals a widening crackdown on dissenting voices.
Editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu, cartoonist Musa Kart, the newspaper’s lawyer and several columnists were detained, some following raids at their homes, Cumhuriyet reported on its website. Police had warrants for the detentions of 16 staff members, according to the left-learning and pro-secular paper.
The detentions involving Cumhuriyet — one of Turkey’s oldest newspapers — come amid accusations by opposition parties and human rights groups that Turkey’s government is using the state of emergency imposed following a failed military coup to clamp down not only on alleged coup plotters, but on all government critics.
A statement from the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office said those detained were suspected of “committing crimes” on behalf of the movement led by U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen — accused by the government of masterminding the July 15 coup attempt — and for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
While they are not accused of membership in the Gulen movement or the PKK, there are “claims” and “proof” that shortly before the attempted coup, the suspects published content that attempted to legitimize the government takeover, the statement said.
Gulen, who lives in the United States, has denied any involvement in the coup attempt.
Since the failed coup, authorities have arrested close to 37,000 people and more than 100,000 people have been dismissed or suspended from government jobs in a purge to eradicate Gulen’s network.
The government issued two new decrees over the weekend that dismissed 10,000 additional civil servants and shut down 15 more mostly pro-Kurdish media outlets.