Veteran Journalist Ilıcak Denied Entry To Melek İpek's House

Journalist Nazlı Ilıcak from the Özgür Düşünce daily was denied entry by several security officers to the house of the mother of Koza İpek Holding CEO Akın İpek in İstanbul on Friday, a day after Melek İpek herself met with confrontation when she attempted to enter her own home on Thursday.
İpek went out for a routine hospital visit on Thursday afternoon, but upon her return she saw several people in front of the gate to her house in İstanbul's Bebek neighborhood, who refused to let her pass. When İpek asked them for their identification and whether they had a court order preventing her from entering her house, the individuals said they were from a security company and had received an order not to let her pass.
İpek was only later able to enter her house thanks to help from her assistants who managed to get past the officials.
A day after this incident, journalist Ilıcak was also stopped by two men who identified themselves as “security officers” when she went to İpek's house to pay her a get-well visit on Friday.
The security men have been identified as Arafat Bingöl and Cengiz Bingöl, according to the media reports.
When stopped, Ilıcak told the men: “Just as I stood behind Merve Kavakçı [previously], I am now standing behind Melek İpek. Those who persecute Melek İpek will be ashamed of themselves tomorrow.”
Merve Kavakçı was a deputy who was thrown out of Parliament in 1999 for wearing the Islamic headscarf.
The men then told her not to “show off.” Bingöl, whose actual job has not yet been confirmed, told Ilıcak that “ your parallel media is attacking me and my family.” Bingöl continued: “This has turned into a show. You have deliberately come to here to show off.”
Ilıcak told the man that a crime is being committed without any court order. “There is a major injustice happening here. No official paper has been shown here. I came to here to visit Mrs. Melek,” Ilıcak said.
“Everybody should act in solidarity against this unlawfulness,” Ilıcak said.
The management of the İpek family's Koza İpek Holding was handed over to a group of government-appointed trustees in a politically motivated move instigated by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) interim government in October of 2015. The family has been facing mounting pressure from trustees who have fired many employees in the holding and prevented family members from having any say about their own assets.
Akın İpek revealed current plans to force her mother out of the family home on his Twitter account on Wednesday. "She will go [out] for treatment today; she was told she would not be allowed in when she is back," he wrote.
Speaking to reporters in front of her house, Melek İpek said she saw strangers inside in the morning who refused to introduce themselves to her. She said they entered her house illegally and told her they didn't need to give her any explanation.
İpek called their actions totally unlawful, saying they violate her privacy, right to property and reflect the end of the supremacy of law in Turkey.

[Cihan/Today's Zaman]