ANKARA: Turkish authorities have issued arrest warrants for the owner and three employees of the opposition daily Sozcu. Officials accuse the newspaper of supporting people allegedly involved in last July’s failed coup. The executive in charge of the Sozcu website, Mediha Olgun, has been arrested while the owner of the daily newspaper, Burak Akbay, is being still sought by authorities as the crackdown on opposition media in Turkey continues. Akbay may be outside of Turkey, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency. The two others sought for arrest are correspondent Gokmen Ulu and financial executive Yonca Kaleli, according to the CNN Turk broadcaster, which keeps close ties with the government.
Sozcu’s lawyer, Ismail Yilmaz, denied that arrest warrants had been issued, telling the private Dogan news agency that warrants had only been issued to seize and search their belongings. Yilmaz did, however, confirm that Mediha Olgun was in custody, adding that this could be in connection with another investigation. The newspaper is accused of having ties to the so-called “Hizmet” movement led by the self-exiled Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen. Turkish authorities blame Gulen, a former government ally, and his followers for the failed coup in July 2016, which cost more than 250 lives. Gulen, who lives in the US state of Pennsylvania, denies those allegations.
The pro-government daily Sabah reported that the suspects were wanted in connection with an online article published on the same day as the attempted coup, saying it could have facilitated “a real attack on the president.” The article in question, however, revealed only details of where Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was spending his holiday in the Aegean resort town of Marmaris, featuring images of the hotel he was staying at. By the time the coup attempt took place, Erdogan had left the location.
