Garo Paylan, an Armenian lawmaker of the Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), talks to media during his visit at the headquarters of Cumhuriyet newspaper, an opposition secularist daily, in Istanbul on Oct. 31, 2016. (Photo: Reuters/Murad Sezer)
ISTANBUL (Reuters)—Turkish police detained the editor and senior staff of a leading opposition newspaper on Monday over its alleged support for a failed coup in July, in a move described by a top EU politician as the crossing of a red line against freedom of expression.
Updating earlier information on its website, Cumhuriyet newspaper said 11 staff including the editor were being held by authorities, and arrest warrants had been issued for five more.
Turkey’s crackdown since rogue soldiers tried to seize power on July 15 has alarmed Western allies and rights groups, who fear President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is using the coup attempt to crush dissent. More than 110,000 people have been sacked or suspended and 37,000 arrested over the past three and a half months.
The latest detentions came a day after 10,000 more civil servants were dismissed and 15 more media outlets shut down.
The Istanbul prosecutor’s office said the staff at the paper, one of few media outlets still critical of Erdogan, was suspected of committing crimes on behalf of Kurdish militants and the network of Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric. Turkey accuses Gulen of orchestrating the coup attempt, in which he denies any involvement.
“An investigation was launched… due to allegations and assessments that shortly before the attempted coup, material was published justifying the coup,â€
