The new Turkey
Nurcan Baysal.
Journalist and author

04-Jun-2019 19:47

3 june 2019:

Turkish police free Kurdish columnist Nurcan Baysal after brief arrest

Turkish police released Nurcan Baysal, an award-winning Kurdish rights defender and Ahval columnist, on Monday, hours after she was detained on suspicion of being a member of a terrorist organisation. Baysal announced her release on Twitter, saying she had been freed and thanked everyone for their support.

"I thank everyone who called and supported me. I will share more details when I get home," she wrote.

Baysal told Ahval earlier on Monday that she had been taken to a hospital by anti-terror police. Lawyers representing Baysal said prosecutors had provided them with no further details about the charges.

In 2018, Baysal was named Global Laureate for Human Rights Defenders at Risk by Front Line Defenders, an Irish human rights NGO. She also contributes to Turkish news website T24.

Turkish police have rounded up thousands of writers, journalists, academics and state employees over the past three years on charges of links to militant Kurdish groups and the Fethullah Gülen organisation, which Turkey blames for orchestrating a failed military coup in 2016.

The arrest comes just days after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he wanted to revive Turkey's floundering application for European Union membership.

Baysal was also detained by Turkish police at her house in Diyarbakir, southeast Turkey in January 2018, and later freed. Human Rights Watch said at the time that she was taken into custody in connection with her Tweets criticising Turkey's military operation in Afrin, Syria.

Baysal is a founder of the Diyarbakır Institute for Political and Social Research (DISA).

14 February 2019:

Nurcan Baysal’s trial postponed to April
 
Journalist and author Nurcan Baysal’s trial on the charge of “inciting the public to hatred and animosity” over her social media posts resumed on 14 February at the 7th Criminal Court of First Instance of Diyarbakır.  
Baysal’s lawyer submitted to the court another court ruling about Baysal in which she was acquitted of the charge against her. The trial was then adjourned until 18 April because the judge was on leave.

16 October 2018:

Nurcan Baysal delivers defense statement in “incitement” case

Journalist and author Nurcan Baysal on 16 October appeared before a court in Diyarbakır for the second hearing of a trial in which she stands accused of “openly inciting the public to hatred and animosity” through her social media posts.

The accusation stems from Baysal’s Twitter posts critical of Turkey’s military operation on Afrin, for which she was arrested for three days back in January. Baysal faces up to three years in prison if convicted.

P24 monitored the hearing at the Diyarbakır 7th Criminal Court of First Instance.

In her defense statement, Baysal rejected the accusation and told the court that the posts for which she was indicted were aimed at calling for peace and at criticizing the government’s foreign policy.

Addressing the court following Baysal, her lawyer, Reyhan Yalçındağ Baydemir made references to ECtHR’s judgments in favor of the right to freedom of expression and also submitted to the court a judgment by the 10th High Criminal Court of Antalya, which acquitted the defendant in a trial with similar facts, as precedent.

In its interim ruling announced at the end of the hearing, the court adjourned the trial until 14 February 2019 for the final defense statement to be prepared.

Turkey seeks three-year jail sentence for journalist Baysal over tweets criticizing Afrin operation

by TurkeyPurge | Apr 18, 2018 |

A Turkish prosecutor is seeking a three-year jail sentence for journalist Nurcan Baysal due to her tweets critical of an ongoing Turkish military operation in the Kurdish-controlled Afrin region of Syria, according to the Mesopotamia news agency.

Baysal was detained on the night of Jan. 21 after police teams broke down the door of her house. The journalist was released pending trial by a court on Jan. 24.

The investigation into Baysal has been completed and an indictment has been drafted by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. The journalist is accused of inciting the public to hatred and enmity.

Baysal writes for the T24 news portal. The journalist’s trial will take place at the Diyarbakır 7th Penal Court of First Instance.

In one of her tweets, Baysal wrote: “Racist fascists touting war! I am against war, I am Kurdish, I am a Gypsy, I am a Jew, I am an Arab, I am LGBT, I am Armenian, I am Yazidi… In short, I am everything you hate. Do not follow me!”

The journalist has denied the charges and said she just shared her views about the operation as a journalist. Baysal said she is against the killing of children and war.

The Turkish military and Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters on Jan. 20 launched Operation Olive Branch in Afrin against the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which Turkey sees as the Syrian extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have reacted strongly to people who oppose the operation, and prosecutor’s offices have initiated investigations into those who share social media messages critical of the operation.