Alwaght- Two editors of leftist Turkish magazine Nokta appeared before the Istanbul High Criminal Court today on charges of attempting to overthrow the government by force.
The two editors from the Nokta magazine, which are critical of the government, were detained by the Istanbul Police Department on 2 November, 2015 over an edition, which had been prepared before Turkey's snap election that saw Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) return to its dominant position in the Turkish parliament, read: “The start of civil war in Turkey.” The lead story inside argued that a potential victory for AKP would exacerbate tensions with the country’s Kurdish minority.
The move comes after Erdogan's Justice AKP swept to an unexpected victory in an election on Sunday that international observers said was marred by a media crackdown, violence and other security concerns.
They were released pending trial by the Istanbul 14th High Criminal Court on Dec. 29, 2015.
According to Turkey-based Today Zaman, Prosecutor Umut Tepe, who prepared the indictment against them, seeks a prison term for the two journalists of up to 20 years in prison.
Saying that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) received 49 percent of the vote during the snap election, the prosecutor lodged charges of “sabotaging a democratically held election, provoking a part of the population against the government to be established with the current president and inciting people to launch an armed rebellion against the Turkish Republic” against the two editors in the indictment, Today Zaman reported.
On 2 November, 2015, in addition to Nokta Magazin editors, 58 opposition journalists were also fired and 57 more people were arrested on charges of being a "terror group".
While Erdogan has repeatedly insisted his country has "the freest press in the world", Reporters without Borders ranked Turkey 149th out of 180 in its 2015 press freedom index, warning of a "dangerous surge in censorship".
Turkey was the world's top jailer of journalists in 2012 and 2013, according to the international Committee to Protect Journalists, before improving to 10th place in 2014.
