At the beginning of March, 2011, Ahmet Şık, Nedim Şener and other prominent Turkish journalists were detained and later arrested as part of the Ergenekon investigation. Both authors who are famous for their investigations into the Ergenekon case and largely contributed to revealing information about the case are now being accused of being members of the illegal state-within-a-state organisation called Ergenekon. The arrests were heavily criticised nationally and internationally for violating the freedom of expression and press in Turkey.
In the case of Ahmet Şık the accusations and human rights violations are now being taken even further. Last week the public prosecutor of the Ergenekon case ordered the confiscation of an unpublished manuscript of Ahmet Şık called “The Imam's Army”. The manuscript is thought to be an investigation into the developing Islamist communal structures within the security forces and other public institutions. Although legal experts agree that there is no legal basis of the confiscation of an unpublished book, police raided his house and even a leading newspaper's office, copied and deleted the digital copies it found on computers. The public prosecutor also ordered that everybody possessing a copy but not handing it over to the police would be accused of being a member of Ergenekon. These latest excesses of censorship and human rights violations already have sparked heavy criticisms and public outrage.
We, as members of the European Green Party demand from the EU institutions, the Council of Europe institutions, and our national governments
1. to condemn the arrests of these Turkish journalists as they represent violations of the freedom of expression and press;
2. to condemn the confiscation and “hunt” of the unpublished manuscript of Ahmet Şık; 3.to call upon the Turkish government to provide fair, transparent and quick treatment of all prisoners.