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Police raid publishing house, Radikal headquarters over journalist Şık’s book
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| 1. |
25 Mar 2011 Fri 09:06 pm |
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Police raid publishing house, Radikal headquarters over journalist Şık’s book
25 March 2011, Friday / NURİ SOYLU, İSTANBUL
İstanbul police carried out a search at the Kadıköy office of the İthaki Publishing House on Wednesday night
| İstanbul police carried out searches at the Kadıköy office of the İthaki Publishing House and the headquarters of the Radikal daily on Thursday as part of an investigation into Ergenekon, a clandestine gang accused of plotting to overthrow the government. |
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The raid at the publishing house started late Wednesday and continued through Thursday. The search was ended after police seized a draft copy of a book by jailed journalist Ahmet Şık. Ezel Demirkol, the lawyer for the owner of the publishing house, said civilian prosecutors ordered a new search at the publishing house after they found the results of Wednesday’s search inadequate.
The search followed the arrest of six journalists, including Şık, earlier this month on charges of membership in Ergenekon. Şık was working on a new book, which he planned to name “İmamın Ordusu” (The Imam’s Army), before he was jailed. The book reportedly talks about followers of the faith-based Gülen movement in the police force.
After the raid on the publishing house, police officers headed to the headquarters of the Radikal daily in the İkitelli neighborhood. The search came after rumors that a copy of Şık’s book was being kept there. Police took copies of some documents in the computers at the daily, but it was not clear whether the documents belonged to Şık’s book.
It was not immediately clear either whether police detained anyone at Radikal by the time Today’s Zaman went to print.
The owner of İthaki Publishing House, Ünal Koçan, said he was shocked by the police raid. “It was not clear yet whether we would publish the book. Police carried out the search based on just an assumption,” he complained. According to Koçan, police officers questioned him about Şık’s book during the raid.
The raid came on the orders of Zekeriya Öz, the chief prosecutor in the Ergenekon investigation. Ahmet Öz, an editor at the publishing house, said police officers carried out the search in order to seize a copy of Şık’s book, which the journalist sent them in the past when working with the publishing house. “Police seized the hard copy and destroyed an electronic copy of the book,” he noted. The editor also added that the publishing house would later give a detailed explanation about the raid.
“We had not made any preparations for the publication of the book. We moved to our new office only two days ago, and we were busy moving,” he added.
According to earlier news reports, a draft copy of Şık’s book was seized from the computer of Soner Yalçın, the jailed owner of the odatv.com news portal. Yalçın is also accused of membership in Ergenekon. A notice reportedly written down by Yalçın, which was seized by police during a search of Odatv in February, read: “This book should absolutely be published before the [June parliamentary] elections. It should be more striking than Simons.” By Simons, Yalçın was referring to jailed Police Chief Hanefi Avcı’s “Haliç’te Yaşayan Simonlar” (Simons in the Golden Horn.) In the book, Avcı argues that the Ergenekon trial is a conspiracy run by the government to silence its critics but at the same time acknowledges he has no proof to back up these allegations.
Editor Öz also stated that he had talked on the phone with Şık’s wife a couple of days ago about the journalist’s plan to have his book published. “I think the police wiretapped the conversation. I did not even read the first 20 pages of the [Şık’s] book. We had not made any preparations for the publication of the book. They [police] only seized a copy of the book. The search was longer than expected due to technical problems. Prosecutor Öz has an opinion about the book, and the raid followed the opinion,” he stated, adding that the publishing house failed to publish Şık’s book due to time constraints before the journalist was arrested. “For this reason, Şık was contacting other publishing houses to have his book published.”
Turkish Journalists Association (TGC) Chairman Atilla Sertel described the police raid at the publishing house as an “infamous act” that does not conform to the standards of democracy. “The era of suppression and violence in Turkey should end. Words are inadequate to express what we are feeling. Turkey will remember these days as a time when unpublished books were censored and writers were jailed for books that were yet to be published,” he said. Sertel also called on judicial bodies to immediately release jailed journalists from prison
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Note : That is a big shame for freedom of Media and thought, of Turkey.
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| 2. |
26 Mar 2011 Sat 01:01 am |
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Once I genuinely believed in people. I thought man is good by nature and therefore anything done through people´s consent would produce positive results for the well-being of society. Time has proven that it is actually the other way around. Democracy could be used for legitimizing oppression. At tactful hands, democracy could be turned into a tool for violating basic freedoms.
We are proceeding on a path of conversion, a conversion to complete somebody else´s dreams.A conversion that will alienate us from our own democratic ideals. I think we have only seen the tip of the iceberg so far.
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| 3. |
26 Mar 2011 Sat 05:41 am |
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There is freedom of the press, but there´s no freedom to lie.
Edited (3/26/2011) by stumpy
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| 4. |
26 Mar 2011 Sat 10:02 am |
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It will be puslished through the Internet. Some unknown people have purchased the domain name "www.imaminordusu.com". Now I wonder if I go ahead and download it, would they come to my door and take my pc (and me of course) to the police station?
Ahmet Şık’ın yazdığı İmamın Ordusu isimli basılmamış kitabın kopyalarının mahkeme kararıyla silinmesine karar verilirken, önceki gün uluslararası internet alan adı (domain) satışı yapan firmadan kimliği belirsiz kişi ya da kişilerce www.imaminordusu.com isimli internet sitesi satın alındı.
Aynı saatlerde aynı adla Twitter hesabı açıldı. “Türkiye’de yer yerinden oynayacak”, “Kitabı yayımlamamıza çok az zaman kaldı”, “11 Nisan 2011’i bekleyin” yazılarının bulunduğu Twitter hesabının yanı sıra internet sitesine de “Gazeteci Ahmet Şık’ın yazdığı ancak henüz basılmayan emniyet içindeki cemaat ilişkilerini konu alan İmam’ın Ordusu adlı kitabın her yerde aranan taslağına ulaştık ve çok yakında sayfamızda yayınlayacağız” diye yazıldı. Kitabın Facebook hayran sayfası da açıldı. Hesap sahipleri, “Hazırlıyoruz, biraz daha sabır, yurt dışındayız, kopyamız güvende 11.04.2011’i bekleyin!” diye yazdı.
Tescil eden: Cemaat Adres: Pennsylvania
ABD’deki godaddy sitesinden satın alınan www.imaminordusu.com sitesinin bilgi sorgulamasında tescil eden bölümünde “cemaat”, yönetici iletişimi bölümünde “Fethullah Gülen”, adres olarak Gülen’in yaşadığı ABD’nin Pennsylvania Eyaleti yer alıyor. IP’den kiralanan sunucunun Washington’da olduğu anlaşılıyor.
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| 5. |
26 Mar 2011 Sat 05:45 pm |
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Democracy must be a goal not a tool.
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| 6. |
27 Mar 2011 Sun 01:14 am |
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There is freedom of the press, but there´s no freedom to lie.
Freedom of press is a basic premise of democracy. You can´t raid a publishing house on the assumption that somebody might lie in the future. You can´t arrest people for putting their ideas on a computer, and if they finally publish something that you think is a lie, you at least WAIT until it´s published and than sue that person in a legal way.
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| 7. |
27 Mar 2011 Sun 02:30 am |
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Freedom of press is a basic premise of democracy. You can´t raid a publishing house on the assumption that somebody might lie in the future. You can´t arrest people for putting their ideas on a computer, and if they finally publish something that you think is a lie, you at least WAIT until it´s published and than sue that person in a legal way.
If that is the case then why was their a price put on Ahmend Salman Rushdi´s head then when he wrote the Satanic Verses in 1988? It is ok to put a price on a novelist´s head and ask that he be killed for a novel he wrote and force him into hiding but it is not ok to raid a publishing house?
There is a thin line between freedom of the press which is not the same as freedom of speech, there are fundamenlte diffrences and one´s freedom has it´s limits and boundries. When you´re freedom of speech, expression and thinking starts to incroche on the freedom of your fellow man than it is no longer considered freedom because you start imposing your freedom on the freedom of others.
The Universal Decleration of Human Rights states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers"
And the government of each contry has the right to look into what may be detremental to the national interests.
It is easy to judge what is right or wrong when it comes to the actions of the authoraties but if you or anyone of us would be put in the shoes of the authoraties we might take the same decisions they have taken or will take.
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| 8. |
27 Mar 2011 Sun 11:19 am |
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It will be puslished through the Internet. Some unknown people have purchased the domain name "www.imaminordusu.com". Now I wonder if I go ahead and download it, would they come to my door and take my pc (and me of course) to the police station?
The admins of "www.imaminordusu.com" have disclosed on twitter that they are getting threats for releasing the book through their site.
On a question what they would do if the access to the site is banned by the court in Turkie, they say that they will share it through torrents.
Gazeteci Ahmet Şık’ın, taslak kopyalarının imhası kararı verilen basılmamış “İmamın Ordusu” kitabını yayınlayacağını iddia eden “imaminordusu.com” internet sitesinin yöneticileri dün twitter’da tehditler aldıklarını yazdılar.
Sabaha karşı saat 05.00’da twitter’dan takipçilerine mesaj gönderen site yöneticileri, “Az önce, yayımlarsak, kapımıza FBI’ın dayanacağı belirtilerek tehdit edildik. Gelen tehdit ve uyarı mesajlarını da sizlerle paylaşacağız” diye yazdı. Sitede ise sıkça sorulan sorular derlendi. Site sahipleri “Mahkeme kararıyla sitenize erişim engellenirse ne yapacaksınız?” sorusuna “B planımız hazır, torrent’lerden (paylaşım teknolojisi) taslağı anında yayacağız. Bu siteyi kapatanların hiç de hayrına olmayacaktır. Daha çabuk yayılmasına sebep olurlar” diye cevap verdiler.
Seçimlerden 2 ay önce
İnternet sitesinin kurucuları siteye koydukları “Sık Sorulan Sorular” bölümünde şu yanıtları verdiler:
Soru: Domain kayıt bilgilerinize neden ulaşılamıyor, niçin gizlediniz?
Cevap: Bu kitabın taslağına sahip olduğundan kuşku duyulan herkesin evi basılıp, bilgisayarlarına el konulmakta ve hapise atılmaktadır. Böyle bir ortamda sevdiklerimizin güvenliği için en doğru yolu seçtik.
Soru: Neden 11 Nisan? Taslak elinizdeyse neden şimdi yayınlamıyorsunuz?
Cevap: Siteyi WikiLeaks formatında, bir web sitesi şeklinde yayınlayacağız. Dosyayı paylaşmak isteseydik torrent’lerden paylaşırdık. Bir web sitesi açıp kendimizi riske atmazdık. Seçimlerden 2 ay önce siteyi açacağız.
Soru: Korkmuyor musunuz? Şikayet edilirseniz ne yapacaksınız?
Cevap: Korkmuyoruz. Çünkü yurt dışındayız. Medeni kanunların olduğu bir ülkedeyiz. Cemaatin yurtdışındaki adamlarından ise hiç korkmuyoruz.
Soru: Amacınız nedir?
Cevap: Amacımız sadece taslağı güzel bir arayüzle paylaşmak. Bu sitede yer alacak bilgiler sadece bilgilendirme amaçlıdır ve herhangi bir reklam amacı veya ziyaretçilerin gizli ve açık bilgilerini toplama amacı gütmemektedir. Başkasının yazmış olduğu bir kitap üzerinden kesinlikle para kazanmayı düşünmüyoruz.
Bu arada kitabın taslaklarının toplatılmasına tepki olarak Facebook’ta oluşturulan “Ahmet Şık’ın Kitabı Bende de Var” isimli gruba önceki günden gece yarısına kadar katılanların sayısı 50 bini aştı.
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| 9. |
27 Mar 2011 Sun 03:19 pm |
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If that is the case then why was their a price put on Ahmend Salman Rushdi´s head then when he wrote the Satanic Verses in 1988? It is ok to put a price on a novelist´s head and ask that he be killed for a novel he wrote and force him into hiding but it is not ok to raid a publishing house?
There is a thin line between freedom of the press which is not the same as freedom of speech, there are fundamenlte diffrences and one´s freedom has it´s limits and boundries. When you´re freedom of speech, expression and thinking starts to incroche on the freedom of your fellow man than it is no longer considered freedom because you start imposing your freedom on the freedom of others.
The Universal Decleration of Human Rights states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers"
And the government of each contry has the right to look into what may be detremental to the national interests.
It is easy to judge what is right or wrong when it comes to the actions of the authoraties but if you or anyone of us would be put in the shoes of the authoraties we might take the same decisions they have taken or will take.
Why are you saying this like I am behind the jihad on Rushdi? Rushdi´s book wasn´t that bad actually. People might not agree with what he wrote, but he had every right to write it. It makes no sense for you to use this in your argument against me. I am against the whole kill Rushdi thing as well.
If the Turkish government wants to be a democratic one, they need to let people criticise that government. Raiding a printing house because they might, possibly, not even sure, but perhaps print something that critiques the government in the future, is a sign of a dictatorship. The Turkish police have illegally listened to the private conversation of the publicist and his wife. And what makes this book so wrong? Does it tell people to kill others, does it call for violence? It has critique on the government, and some of it might be a lie, some of it might be true. I have NO idea, since the writer could not even THINK about publishing it without the Turkish police arresting him. I am sure that if I was in the authorities position, I would not raid that publishing house. I would spend my time fighting actual terrorists, or fight the corruption that is present in the government.
Turkey is making a very bad impression on the world by the doubtfull treatment of any writer or journalist who does not agree with the government.
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| 10. |
27 Mar 2011 Sun 05:45 pm |
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I have NO idea, since the writer could not even THINK about publishing it without the Turkish police arresting him. I am sure that if I was in the authorities position, I would not raid that publishing house. I would spend my time fighting actual terrorists, or fight the corruption that is present in the government.
My comment was not aimed directly at you but was a comment about your post.
What about the Patrio Act the has been signed into law on October 26 2001 by Goerge W Bush? Do you know that with that law, the US authoreties can detaine you without any concret proof that you are a terrorist? They only have to suspect that you are to detaine you. That law is no better than the Enabling Act of 1933 which removed power from the Reichstag and transfered power to Hitler´s cabinet. The only diffrence is that it was voted in a democratic country!
Is that democratic? Where is the "you are innocent until proven guilty" motto? with that law you are automaticly guilty and you have to prove you are innocent! They can search your home, workplace, friends home without any warrants. Is that still democratic? It is exactly the same as what you are accusing the Turkish authoreties of doing to the plublishing house.
In some countries if you borrow the book Mine Kampf by Hitler from a library it sends a flag to the authoreties, this is done in Canada and the US. You buy hydroponic items you are flagged. Do you know that if you buy fertiliser that is also flagged to the authoreties? And many other actions are recorded by the authoreties. So it is not just the writters and such that are "shadowed" but the regular law abiding citizen.
So when you say we live in a democratic country, it is not totally true. We only have an appearance of democratie, which is exactly what our leaders wants us to beleive.
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