Istanbul court orders release of prominent novelist Asli Erdogan, linguist Necmiye Alpay

A Turkish court has ordered the release under judicial supervision of prominent novelist Asli Erdogan, who was held behind bars for over four months on terror propaganda charges.  

Asli Erdogan, one of Turkey's most celebrated contemporary novelists, appeared in a court in Istanbul for the first time on Thursday to respond to accusations of having links to the now shut-down pro-Kurdish newspaper Ozgur Gundem.

Necmiye Alpay, a prominent linguist known for her translations of Western novels into Turkish, was also on trial in the same case. The court also ordered the release under judicial supervision of Alpay, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.   

Erdogan and Alpay have been in jail for 132 and 120 days respectively.

The two are charged over their articles in Ozgur Gundem, the newspaper which the Turkish authorities said was a mouthpiece for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Nine other suspects are also involved in the case.

The next hearing for them is scheduled for January.

During the Thursday hearing in Istanbul, which came as activists were rallying outside the court to protest against the government crackdown, Erdogan ridiculed the charges and asked for her release.

"I am a writer and the purpose of my existence is to tell a story ... I am accused of being a member of a terror group on the sole basis that my name is buried in the paper,” said the writer, adding, "I will defend myself as if the laws existed.”

Erdogan, who is no relation to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has published several well-received novels, some of them translated into foreign languages.

Opposition figures and activists said there was no logic behind the Thursday trial as the two had just expressed their thoughts through their writings.

The trial came on the same day as Turkey detained prize-winning journalist Ahmet Sik in a separate case over a series of tweets in support of the PKK and articles he had written for Cumhuriyet, an opposition daily. Local media said Sik was accused of making “terror propaganda” and denigrating the Turkish Republic, the judicial authorities and police.

Since a failed coup attempt in July, Turkey has been in a state of emergency. Around 40,000 have been jailed and over 100,000 have been discharged from work on suspicion of having links with a US-based Turkish cleric who is accused by the Ankara government of orchestrating the coup.

Many have also been jailed over alleged links to the PKK, which has intensified its attacks on security forces after Ankara declared null a two-year ceasefire with the group last year. 

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