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JOURNALIST Ayse Duzkan said yesterday she was in “high spirits” despite being jailed for 18 months for acting as the editor of the daily pro-Kurdish Ozgur Gundem newspaper.
Ms Duzkan remained defiant after she was sentenced by an Istanbul court and said her act of solidarity was “not just for freedom of the press but also to lay claim for the demand for peace.”
“My morale is high, see you,” she said as she was taken to the Bakirkoy women’s prison to start her sentence
Ms Duzkan was one of 56 people who participated in Ozgur Gundem’s Editor-in-Chief on Watch campaign, where individuals would take on the role in solidarity with the daily newspaper, which was routinely attacked by Turkish authorities who closed it down by decree under the state of emergency.
Fifty of those who took part in the campaign, including Ms Duzkan, were charged with “propagandising for a terrorist organisation” and for “publishing and spreading statements of terrorist organisations.”
More than 10,000 press cards have been cancelled and hundreds of media organisations have been shut down as the Turkish state seeks to silence critical voices.
More journalists are in jail in Turkey than any other country in the world, with 165 behind bars in 2018, according to the Stockholm Centre for Freedom.
Ms Duzkan told the Bianet media organisation that there were deep, structural changes necessary to bring about peace in the country.
“It is common to talk about Ozgur Gundem as ‘Kurdish press’,” she said. “As a Turk, I think the Kurdish reality is important for us. Because the demand for peace is impossible without knowing this reality.
“I acted in solidarity with the Ozgur Gundem, not just for freedom of the press, but also to lay claim to the demand for peace. My morale is high, I am in high spirits.”
But she warned that the sentence to she received was less important than the need for change.
“We are going through such a period that education is being reformed, the law is dying out, scientific work is being destroyed. Also, a period of grave poverty,” she said.
”Many people are sentenced to prison. My sentence is nothing compared to them. The sentences given to us are not important compared to these changes. My morale is high, I am in high spirits.”
