At a protest in front of the Cumhuriyet newspaper office yesterday (11 November), the "We Want Our Future" Istanbul Initiative condemned journalist Erdogan Aydin's dismissal from the newspaper after he took part in a discussion programme on the pro-Kurdish Roj TV channel.

Around thirty people shouted the slogan "Erdogan is enlightened ("aydin"), Cumhuriyet is dark". In a press statement, the initiative accused the Cumhuriyet, Vakit and Zaman newspapers of "collaborating as war hawks when it comes to nationalism", saying "they have joined the holy alliance against freedoms".

The religious Vakit and Zaman newspapers had reported of Aydin's participation in the discussion programme in a distorted manner.

Targeting intellectuals threatens their lives 

The statement also said, "We oppose the bigoted lynching attempts supported by the Cumhuriyet newspaper, which is progressive only in words, not in essence, with worry."

The group declared that as they represented the future of the country, they did not want any "democrat, intellectual and real patriot" to suffer for their ideas. Aziz Nesin, the Alevi writer who survived an arson attack in which 33 writers, singers and intellectuals were killed in Sivas in 1993, and Hrant Dink, the Turkish-Armenian journalist who was murdered on 19 January this year, were given as examples of what happens when intellectuals are targeted.

The Cumhuriyet newspaper was likened to "a ship that is constantly being pulled to the right"; the initiative criticised it for praising the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), for supporting capitalism, and for opting for a military rather than a democratic solution to the Kurdish question.

Letter by Tunceli Bar Association 

In a letter sent to the newspaper, the Tunceli Bar Association has called for a review of Aydin's dismissal.

In the letter it says, "It is known that the Cumhuriyet newspaper, which is as old as Turkey, has overcome many dangers in terms of freedom of thought and democracy. There are still many progressive-democratic and socialist writers on the newspaper. Seeing as this is the case, it is in one word shameful that the newspaper management has signed [the dismissal]."

The letter added: "We cannot understand how a newspaper which lost people like (murdered) Ugur Mumcu and Ahmet Taner Kislali cannot tolerate an Erdogan Aydin." (EÖ/AG)