(CN) — Europe's human rights court on Tuesday lambasted Turkish authorities for violating a prominent investigative journalist's rights when they tossed him in prison for months during a crackdown on people perceived to be enemies of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
A panel of seven judges with the European Court of Human Rights ruled Turkish authorities had no good reason in 2016 to arrest Ahmet Sik, who was at the time writing for the left-wing secular Cumhuriyet newspaper in Istanbul, and then keep him in pretrial detention for 13 months on charges that he was cooperating with enemies of the government.
Sik's case was one of four rulings related to Turkey issued by the Strasbourg-based court on Tuesday that together provided a window into an era of turbulent change for Turkey, one marked by rapid modernization, corruption, political repression and powerful domestic clashes.
Two of the other cases involved corruption, a widespread problem in Turkey and one that many say has only gotten worse under the authoritarian regime of Erdogan, whose leadership has also coincided with a period of modernization and economic growth in Turkey. In recent years, though, Turkey's economy has stalled and the Turkish lira is going through a major fall in value. The fourth case involved landowners challenging state seizure of plots of land they inherited from a squatter relative.
Sik's case sheds a harsh light on Erdogan's repressive political machine, which is waging a relentless campaign against those deemed to oppose his pro-Islamist nationalist party's dominance over Turkey. Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party have cemented their control over Turkey since Erdogan became prime minister in 2002, though cracks in his popular support are appearing with recent electoral losses, including the mayorship of Istanbul.
Sik was among numerous managers and journalists at the Cumhuriyet newspaper who were arrested and charged with crimes in the aftermath of a failed coup attempt in July 2016. The newspaper was accused of seeking to aid the coup attempt, which Erdogan said was orchestrated by the American-based preacher Fethullah Gulen. In fact, Sik had done extensive reporting to expose the Gulen movement and written a book alleging it had infiltrated Turkey's police. The book was banned in Turkey.
Sik and the newspaper also were accused of being propaganda mouthpieces for outlawed militant pro-Kurdish forces, the Workers’ Party of Kurdistan, and a banned militant Marxist group, the People’s Revolutionary Liberation Party/Front.
Earlier this month, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against Turkish authorities over their actions against the newspaper, the country’s oldest independent newspaper and a voice for the secularist opposition.
Prior to Erdogan's rise to power, Turkey had a strong tradition of separating religion and government, a core principle in the formation of the Turkish republic under Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey. Erdogan, an Islamist leader, has eroded that secular tradition. The 2016 coup attempt by the military sought to restore Ataturk's secular and democratic underpinnings to Turkey.
Sik was arrested on Dec. 29, 2016, at his home by Istanbul police and accused of disseminating propaganda through his newspaper articles and posts on Twitter and advocating violence. Prosecutors also accused Sik of denigrating the Turkish state by alleging it was supporting terrorist groups.
Sik denied the charges against him and said his writings were the work of journalism.
It wasn't the first time Sik's sharp criticism of Turkey's government had landed him in jail. His writings on human rights abuses and government actions had brought him into conflict numerous times with Turkish authorities and he fled the country in 2009 for fear of reprisal for critical articles about officials, according to a case file on him at PEN, an international group that supports writers.