After he was attacked and beaten by four masked people in Siirt, a province in the southeast of Turkey, Diya Yarayan has been in the intensive care unit of Siirt State Hospital.

Yarayan is the owner of the Siirt Birlik newspaper. His wife, Hatice Yarayan spoke to bianet, saying that her husband’s life was not out of danger yet:

“My husband can talk. He told me that those beating him intended to kill him. His whole body is bruised. He has got a huge bruise on his shoulders, and what looks like knife cuts on his feet. His eyelids are bruised, and his whole head is covered in bandages.”

Following the attack, four people were arrested on court orders, but Hatice Yarayan indicated that she believes that more people are behind the attack.

Previous death threat

“When I went to my husband’s office two months ago, there was a death threat written in Arabic on a piece of carton on his desk. It was written in big letters with a ball point pen, containing swear words and the phrase ‘They will kill you soon anyway.’ My husband has got a friend of Arab origin whom he sometimes argues with. Because he has not been seeing him recently, this friend has been angry. I told my husband to go to the prosecution, but he didn’t.”

Yarayan said that she and her husband had been publishing the newspaper under great difficulties for the last five years. They have had no financial support: “We have an economic crisis. Our house is mortgaged, and together with bank credits, we are 100,000 TL in debt. We were going to get rid of our debts, but now our dreams have been shattered.”

She said that she has been disappointed by the lack of support from other journalists or the Siirt Governor, saying that she expected at least moral support. (EÖ/AG)