Turkish journalists charged with revealing state secrets

Two prominent Turkish journalists went on trial in a closed court on Friday over a report alleging that the Turkish government had tried to smuggle arms to Islamists in Syria.

Can Dundar and Erdem Gul, from the newspaper Cumhuriyet, were arrested in November after president Recep Tayyip Erdogan filed a personal complaint against them. They were held in pre-trial detention but were released in February after the Constitutional Court ruled that their rights to liberty and free expression had been violated.

They face life imprisonment if found guilty of charges of espionage and of aiding Fethullah Gulen, an influential US-based cleric who has strongly criticised Erdogan’s government.

Dundar and Gul are on trial for publishing images that reportedly date back to January 2014, when local authorities searched Syria-bound trucks, leading to a standoff with Turkish intelligence officials. Cumhuriyet said the images proved Turkey was smuggling arms to Islamist rebels in Syria.

The government initially denied the trucks were carrying arms, maintaining that the cargo consisted of humanitarian aid.

However, some officials later suggested that the trucks were carrying arms or ammunition destined for Turkmen kinsmen in Syria.

Government officials accuse Gulen's supporters of stopping the trucks as part of an alleged plot to overthrow Erdogan’s government. The Turkish government has branded Gulen’s Hizmet movement a "terror organization" although it is not known to have engaged in any acts of violence.

Dundar, the newspaper’s chief editor, told journalists before the trial that the government was trying to intimidate the Turkish press.

“The Constitutional Court has already said that this news is not an act of terrorism but an act of journalism,” he said. “So this judge, we hope, will approve this decision and drop this case.

“There’s an effort to arrest an entire profession and the public – what foreigners call a ‘chilling effect’. What’s trying to be created is a mechanism of self-censorship and an increasing empire of fear.

Dozens of prominent writers on Thursday published an open letter to Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, urging the government to drop its charges against the Cumhuriyet journalists.

“We believe that Can Dundar and Erdem Gul are facing life in prison simply for carrying out their legitimate work as journalists,” they said.