Sunday, August 26, 2018

Ankara Tries Turkish Cypriot Journalist for Criticizing Turkey

by Uzay Bulut • August 26, 2018 at 5:00 am

"The atrocities of the Turkish army included wholesale and repeated rapes of women of all ages, systematic torture, savage and humiliating treatment of hundreds of people, including children, women and pensioners during their detention by the Turkish forces, as well as looting and robbery on an extensive scale, by Turkish troops and Turkish Cypriots." — The Cyprus Federation of America.
"You are hostile. Hostile to everything that is good, beautiful and right... You are not protesters, you are terrorists. You hit, broke, destroyed and attempted to murder us. You call that a protest? You are like the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi, Boko Haram in Nigeria, and jihadist marauders who carry out beheadings in Syria." — Şener Levent, the editor-in-chief of the Turkish-language daily newspaper Afrika in Cyprus, who is being tried by Turkey for two articles he recently wrote.
In an attempt to change the demographic structure of the area, thousands of illegal settlers have been brought from Turkey to the occupied part and around 43,000 Turkish occupation troops have been stationed there.
Turkey does not want any of its crimes against the island to be exposed -- particularly by Turkish Cypriots. It appears that what is once again being targeted in these lawsuits against Afrika is not only Levent's courageous journalism but also the freedom and sovereignty of Cyprus.

Cyprus' capital of Nicosia is divided by a UN-patrolled demilitarized "buffer zone," between a free, southern section, and a northern section occupied by Turkey's army. (Image source: Jpatokal/Wikimedia Commons)

A veteran journalist in Europe's last divided city, Nicosia, has been targeted and intimidated by Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for criticizing Turkey's actions in Cyprus and elsewhere in the region.

Şener Levent, editor-in-chief of the Turkish-language daily newspaper, Afrika, in Cyprus, has been charged with crimes by Turkish prosecutors in Ankara. The charges concern the January 21 front page of the newspaper, which criticized Turkey's invasion of the Syrian city of Afrin as well as an article by Levent about a violent mob action against his newspaper on January 22.

Afrika, which has a left-wing political stance, is located in the occupied northern section of Nicosia and covers news related to Cyprus, Turkey and the wider region. The initial version of Afrika was the newspaper Avrupa ("Europe"), established in 1997 and printed for 4 years before Afrika replaced it.