The new Turkey |
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29-Dec-2019 13:01 |
Turkish journalist sent to prison over reports on Turkish army operations
Akgül was sentenced to two years, six months in April 2017 and has been out on bail pending appeal. Turkish security forces had been trying to clear southeastern towns and cities of PKK militants since July 2015, when a two-year cease-fire with the PKK collapsed, shattering a settlement process launched by the government in late 2012 to end Turkey’s long-standing Kurdish problem and triggering the worst violence seen in the region in two decades. According to a report by Amnesty International in December, an estimated half million people were forced from their homes as a result of a brutal crackdown by Turkish authorities over the last year, which may have amounted to collective punishment. In March 2017 Zehra Doğan, an artist and a reporter for DİHA, was given a prison sentence of two years, nine months, 22 days for painting the destruction in Nusaybin. “I was given two years and 10 months [jail time] only because I painted Turkish flags on destroyed buildings. However, they [the Turkish government] caused this. I only painted it,” Doğan said in a tweet. |
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