Turkish daily dismisses journalists for criticizing government

Turkey’s Milliyet newspaper has sacked five correspondents and two columnists for what is said to be writing reports criticizing the policies of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

According to a report by the Turkish Today’s Zaman newspaper, Columnist Mehveş Evin said on her Twitter account on Friday that she had been fired from her job, adding, “I still don’t know why. But, I will not give in and I will continue to write!”

On Thursday, Milliyet reportedly refused to publish Evin’s article about recent clashes between Turkish forces and members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the country’s troubled southeast.

The pro-government Yeni Şafak newspaper accused Evin of being “a PKK sympathizer,” claiming that she had a role in the 2013 demonstrations against the Turkish administration’s proposal to demolish Gezi Park in the city of Istanbul.

The Milliyet daily also dismissed Columnist Meral Tamer and five correspondents, namely Kemal Göktaş, Evin Demirtaş, Sertaç Koç, Semra Pelek and Alper İzbul.

The paper is reportedly planning to fire 25 more staff in the coming days.

Reactions to the controversial dismissals

In a Friday meeting in the southern Gaziantep province, dozens of journalists and intellectuals lashed out at Milliyet for sacking its employees, who are critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s policies.

Speaking during the gathering, Murat Atay, president of the Press for Freedom (PfF) project’s Southeastern Anatolia Committee, said Ankara’s latest pressure on journalists is the main obstacles to freedom of media in Turkey.

The Turkish Journalists Union (TGS) also released a statement on Friday and described the paper’s decision to fire its staff as unacceptable, saying that no one should stifle public’s right to information by sacking critical journalists.

In a similar move last month, Milliyet fired Kadri Gursel over his remarks on his social media criticizing Erdogan’s policies, which the journalist said, gave rise to the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group.

In a tweet posted on July 22, Gursel noted that it was shameful that world leaders were offering their condolences to the Turkish president for the deadly July 20 explosion in the southern town of Suruc, which left 32 people dead and more than 100 other wounded.

Turkey has been criticized for clamping down on journalists and sentencing them to long prison terms.

Ankara has also been widely accused of supporting the Takfiri Daesh militants operating in Syria as part of a broader Western plot for the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

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