Turkey arrests chairman of opposition Cumhuriyet daily

Turkish officials have arrested the chairman of the center-left and opposition daily newspaper Cumhuriyet in an ongoing wave of government crackdown and pressure on journalists and political rivals of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following the failed July 15 coup attempt.

Turkish police detained Akin Atalay at Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport on Friday upon return from Germany, where he had attended a ceremony in honor of late Turkish film actor and producer Tarik Akan.

Cumhuriyet reported that Istanbul Prosecutor's Office had called for Atalay’s arrest last week, but police could not find him at home as he was abroad at the time.

The development came as nine journalists and executives from the same newspaper were remanded in custody last weekend.

Editor-in-Chief Murat Sabuncu was among those sent to prison pending trial. Cartoonist Haci Musa Kart and board members Ahmet Kadri Gursel, Guray Tekin Oz, Mustafa Kemal Gungor, Turhan Gunay, Hakan Karasinir, Onder Celik and Bulent Utku were remanded as well.

Columnists Hikmet Cetinkaya and Aydin Engin were later released on bail because of ill health and old age. No charges were brought against two other suspects from the newspaper's accounting department.

Cumhuriyet's journalists are suspected of affiliation to the network of US-based opposition figure Fethullah Gulen, whom the Ankara government accuses to have orchestrated the July 15 botched putsch, and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). 

European officials and various rights groups have been increasingly critical of Turkey's crackdown on journalists following the failed coup bid, which Gulen has strongly condemned and roundly rejected any involvement in.

SS