Ahmet Türk, president of the Democratic Society Party (DTP), criticized the closing of daily Azadiya Welat by a court ruling for one month.

In his speech given at the Parliament (TBMM) yesterday (October 14), Türk said, “Let us please keep this newspaper alive, let us all subscribe to it.”

The DTP deputies lifted up the newspapers in their hands and showed them to the journalists.

According to the Dicle News Agency (DİHA), DTP’s co-president Emine Ayna, European Parliament (EP) Deputy Feleknas Uca and some DTP deputies visited the headquarters of the newspaper in Diyarbakır, a province in the eastern Turkey, and condemned the closing.

Meeting with chief editor of the newspaper Tayip Temel, Ayna stated that there were anti-democratic practices in Turkey and closing newspapers was one of them. Temel replied by saying, “We are unable to raise our voice and therefore we want your assistance.”

Stating that the Kurdish people will never be without a newspaper, Temel said they were going to publish another newspaper titled Denga Welan in this one month they will stay closed.

Karasu and Aktütün news led to the closing

The newspaper was closed by the 12^th High Criminal Court for “doing propaganda work for the organization [the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK)]” and “having the PKK announcements published” in the newspaper. The newspaper will stay closed until November 5.

The newspaper administrators said what led to their closing were the news article titled “Roof Party is a requirement for Democracy" written in Kurdish by Mustafa Karasu, one of the PKK administrators, and the news report about the Aktütün Assault by the PKK. (EÖ/EÜ/TB)