CHP Deputies Visit Jailed Media Head Karaca And Journalist Baransu

A delegation from the Republican People's Party (CHP) has visited the head of the Samanyolu Broadcasting Corporation, Hidayet Karaca, and jailed journalists Mehmet Baransu, Erol Savar, Hatice Duvar and Sami Tunca in prison to determine the conditions of their imprisonment.

The delegation from the CHP visited Karaca and the jailed journalists on Sunday as part of their campaign to visit all of the 22 jailed media personnel and journalists in Turkey.

The two-person delegation comprising CHP Deputy Chairman Veli Ağbaba and Eskişehir deputy Utku Çakırözer sought to determine the living conditions of the inmates and see how they were doing.

Karaca was detained on Dec. 14, 2014 as was the editor-in-chief of the best-selling Zaman daily, Ekrem Dumanlı, along with dozens of journalists, scriptwriters and police officers over allegations of being part of a terrorist group.

Karaca has been detained for allegedly encouraging a police operation against al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group Tahşiyeciler (Annotators) in 2010 by way of a TV series aired on his channel.

On Jan. 22, 2010 police officers raided the homes and offices of 112 people across Turkey as part of a series of al-Qaeda sweeps. Police discovered two hand grenades, ammunition and maps that were allegedly part of an imminent plot to stage a terror attack in Turkey.


Deputies: Karaca held over telephone meeting that never happened


The CHP delegation told the Zaman daily on Sunday that Karaca was being held for a telephone meeting that never happened and that his arrest was actually a ploy by the government to muzzle the STV network over its coverage, which is critical of the government.

Karaca said via the CHP delegation that the former intelligence director of the Turkish General Staff, Lt. Gen. İsmail Hakkı Pekin, had formed a seven page report about the Tahşiyeciler organization in 2009 and that the police force had compiled a report in 2008. Karaca added that he was being framed for something he did not do.

In addition to Karaca, dozens of police officers in various provinces have been targeted by prosecutors after they took part in a probe against Tahşiyeciler despite the existence of intelligence reports from state agencies showing the group's involvement in illegal acts.

Speaking during an interview with CNN Türk earlier, Mehmet Doğan, the leader of Tahşiyeciler, denied any links to al-Qaeda but said he “loved bin Laden because he is a Muslim.”

Karaca also said that he was being held over claims that he was involved in terrorism, while explaining that for there to be a terrorist organization there would have to be a hierarchy and that no such hierarchy existed.

Stating that the STV channel, under his leadership, extensively covered the Ergenekon trials because they are against “coup plotters,” Karaca said: “We covered the trials because we are against coups. If it weren't for us [STV], who would have stepped up if the [army] issued the April 27 memorandum?”

Ergenekon is a terrorist organization accused of working to topple the democratically elected government in Turkey. Its existence was discovered when the police found a number of hand grenades in a shanty house in the Ümraniye district of İstanbul in 2007.

The suspects, who included members of the military, businessmen and journalists, appeared before a court for the first time in 2008 in what many described as the “trial of the century.”

The April 27, 2007 memorandum, or “e-memorandum,” was a controversial General Staff statement released on its website in 2007 weighing in on the Turkish presidential elections to held that year. The memorandum showed the army's discontentment with the candidate that would most likely be elected, Abdullah Gül, based on the fact that his wife wore a headscarf.

Uludere was decided on in MGK meeting


Baransu was detained and arrested in March for publishing classified documents from a 2004 National Security Council (MGK) meeting during which council members had discussed an action plan targeting the faith-based Gülen movement. He is now facing a prison term of 52 years.

Baransu told the CHP delegation that there were 85 court cases against him and five pending investigations. “They [the government] killed 34 people in Uludere but they put me on trial on charges that I published secret documents belonging to the state.”

“The Uludere massacre was decided on in an MGK meeting,” he said.

On Dec. 28, 2011 Turkish jets bombed and killed 34 Turkish men and boys who were traveling back to their villages in Uludere, also known as Roboski, from northern Iraq when the group was mistaken for Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists.