According to the data of professional press organizations, a total of 178 media outlets were shut down between July 20 and December 31, 2016, with the State of Emergency (OHAL) declared after the coup attempt on July 15 with Statutory Decrees (KHK). While 9 of the closed press institutions were reopened after objecting to the decisions, 169 media outlets could not be opened again. On the other hand, Deputy Prime Minister of the time, Hakan Çavuşoğlu, claimed that a total of 116 press and broadcasting institutions, including 6 news agencies, 18 televisions, 22 radios, 50 newspapers and 20 magazines, were closed on May 9, 2018.

 

The opposition press, especially the Kurdish press, also got their share from these pressures under the name of “struggle against the Gülen Movement”. Dicle News Agency (DİHA), Jin News Agency (JİNHA), Azadiya Welat, Yüksekova News, Batman Çağdaş Newspaper, Cizre Post, İdil News, Güney Express, Prestij News, Urfanatik Newspaper, Voice of Kızıltepe, Tiroji Magazine, Universal Culture Magazine, Freedom World Magazine were closed down with KHKs.

 

EFFORTS TO STRANGLE THE PRESS

 

Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG) Co-Chair Serdar Altan, who evaluated the 5-years that passed since the closure of the media outlets, stated that this should not be forgotten, and said, “In this respect, we must take those days as a milestone. What happened after that was the aftershock of what happened at that time. We are now faced with a government, a state that is trying to suffocate the society and strangle the free press."

 

PRO-GOVERNMENT MEDIA WAS INSTITUTIONALISED

 

Mentioning that the structure of the media was also changed after that, Altan said, “After those days, the so-called pro-government media became completely institutionalized. Together with AKP's partner MHP, they established a media empire affiliated to them. Almost all of the more than 700 broadcasting institutions over satellite have become broadcasting institutions serving them. Of course, the opposition media and the Kurdish media re-opened their institutions again. Somehow they tried to stay afloat, they resisted. We should never forget what happened in 2016."

 

'FASCISM SPREADED ALL OVER TURKEY'

 

Noting that the government, after subduing the society through the press, advanced step by step, which it could not easily do under normal conditions, Altan said: “After that, the war escalated. The pressure on the opposition increased. Those elected by the people were arrested. Presidential Government System was introduced. All of this was done as a result of silencing the media. They spread fascism all over Turkey. Its democracy has been completely suspended. An aggravated isolation began to be implemented in Imrali and this isolation was applied to the entire society. Thus, the AKP government has come a long way in getting what it wants in these 5-years. The authoritarian regime was built on the silencing of the press and media outlets as a whole. But at the stage we have reached, the Kurdish press has somehow stood up and is taking firm steps towards countering fascism.”

 

AKP AIMED TO CLEAR THE PATH

 

Ramazan Ölçen, the publisher of Azadiya Welat, the only daily newspaper that was closed with a KHK which was published in Kurdish, said that the Kurdish press was targeted in order to remove the obstacle in front of their policy to destroy the Kurds. Stating that the AKP aimed to 'clear the path' to achieve its own political goals, Ölçen stated that the government did not take into account the resistant structure of the Kurdish press and said, "This is a press that has been shaken by attacks and coups, but has shown the ability to recover quickly. It is true that the government has implemented its policies however it liked, but all this while, Kurdish press has been keeping records and creating a memory."

 

AZADİYA WELAT WAS AN ACADEMY

 

Stating that the closure of Azadiya Welat, the only daily Kurdish newspaper, was because of the mission of the newspaper, Ölçen finally said: “Azadiya Welat was not just a newspaper and one of those who knew it best was the government. It was an academy, a school, and truly the North's one and only Kurmanji and Kirmancki school. Thousands and even tens of thousands learned their language thanks to Azadiya Welat. I am also a student of this school. It trained dozens of writers and hundreds of journalists in his adventure of journalism in Kurdish, which may sound like an exaggeration, but all started with Welat.  That's why it was closed. And that's why it keeps going on."