The public prosecutor’s office, having completed its investigation against the seven individuals—five of whom were journalists—who were detained in June last year and taken to Artvin, has classified the journalists’ meetings with MPs, lawyers and human rights defenders as criminal offenses

CANAN COŞKUN, ISTANBUL

The investigation against the journalists Semra Pelek, Eylem Emel Yılmaz, Dicle Baştürk, Metin Yoksu, Yavuz Akengin, translator Melisa Efe and website developer Ozan Cırık – who were detained in June 2025 and taken to Artvin as part of an Artvin-based investigation – has been completed. In the indictment filed by the Artvin Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, the journalists were charged with “membership in a terrorist organization.” The indictment, submitted to the Artvin High Criminal Court, was referred to Istanbul following a ruling on lack of jurisdiction. The Istanbul 26th High Criminal Court, to which the case was referred, accepted the indictment and set the date for the first hearing as 24 November.

In the indictment, the date of the offense was recorded as 13 June 2025—the day the journalists were referred to the prosecutor’s office—and the location of the offense was listed as Artvin. The 39-page indictment addressed the aims of the Fethullah Gülen movement and the organisztion’s hierarchical structure. The indictment, which also details the events that took place during the coup attempt, mentions the closure of the Bosphorus Bridge, the bombing of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, and F-16 jets flying at low altitude over the General Staff Headquarters and the General Directorate of Security. Whilst the indictment alleges that the journalists were part of the “FETÖ/PDY armed terrorist organization,” it does not provide any concrete information on how this link was established.

The Artvin Gendarmerie’s investigation

According to the indictment, the investigation began with an open-source investigation carried out by the Artvin Gendarmerie without a prosecutor’s directive. The open-source investigation revealed that Sevinç Özarslan, a journalist born in Hopa who had an arrest warrant issued under the Ministry of the Interior’s “grey category,” had participated in activities organized by the Fethullahist network abroad, and that the news stories she prepared were published both on her own platform and on the Kronos website. The indictment stated that the Kronos website contained content produced by individuals linked to the Fethullahist organization and that, as the site’s name means “time,” it served as a continuation of the Zaman (Time) newspaper. The open-source report also noted that journalists Doğan Ertuğrul, Turhan Bozkurt and Selahattin Sevi were part of the Kronos website’s founding team, editorial staff and writers. It was alleged that these individuals used funds collected from people both in Turkey and abroad under the guise of “support,” which they transferred into the country, to prevent individuals with no financial means from breaking away from the organization. This report was subsequently sent to the Artvin Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Charges relating to telephone conversations

One of the grounds for the charges in the indictment was the telephone calls made by the journalists to their colleagues, members of parliament, lawyers and human rights defenders. This charge had also been leveled against the journalists during their interrogations by the gendarmerie. In the gendarmerie records, Erol Önderoğlu, the former Turkey representative of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), was listed as “wanted.”

Among those accused of having telephone conversations with the journalists were the journalists Nadire Mater, Hasan Cemal, Erol Önderoğlu, Faruk Eren, Evrim Kepenek, Diren Yurtsever, Seyhan Avşar, Hayri Demir, Ozan Kaplanoğlu, Aziz Oruç, Ruşen Takva, Mimar Kaya, Faruk Eren, the former general secretary of the DİSK Press Workers’ Union, lawyers Hürrem Sönmez and Ramazan Yılmaz, forensic medicine expert Şebnem Korur Fincancı, human rights lawyer Mehmet Raci Bilici, the then HDP MPs Oya Ersoy, Tayip Temel, Tuma Çelik and Leyla Güven, and the then CHP MP and current President of the Istanbul Bar Association, İbrahim Özden Kaboğlu. It was stated that these individuals had records in the Gendarmerie system for the offenses of “membership in an armed terrorist organization” and “terrorism propaganda.” No information was provided regarding the outcomes of the cases.

The indictment also cited journalist Semra Pelek’s conversations via the Skype application with Doğan Ertuğrul, Selahattin Sevi and the Armenian journalist Alin Ozinian as grounds for the charges.

MASAK report

One of the grounds for the indictment is the report dated 14 February 2025 by the Presidency of the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK). In the report, the royalties received by the journalists in return for their news reports and translations were cited as evidence of a crime. Furthermore, small-value money transfers sent between the journalists as a gesture of solidarity had also been presented as charges against them during the investigation.

Newspaper clippings were treated as evidence

The indictment also referred to clippings from the Zaman newspaper seized during a search of journalist Yavuz Akengin’s residence in Ankara. The indictment stated that nine clippings from the Zaman newspaper had been seized, and noted that Akengin’s membership in the Pak Media Workers’ Union in 2015 was also recorded as evidence of a criminal offense. In his statement to the prosecution, Akengin said that he had worked as a reporter for the Zaman newspaper between 2013 and 2016, until a trustee was appointed, after which he was forced to take on different jobs. Akengin had explained that, following an offer from Selahattin Sevi, whom he knew from the Zaman newspaper, he began working for the news website Kronos in 2020 on a fee-for-service basis, where he served as an editor and, for a time, also contributed news to the Velev website.

“Working for the Taraf newspaper” charge

The indictment states that journalist Dicle Baştürk acted as moderator on the program “Analiz,” broadcast on the Kronos TV channel on YouTube; Baştürk’s request during the program for viewers to subscribe to the channel was also treated as a crime. The prosecution, which also seized Baştürk’s telephone, examined her WhatsApp chats and call logs. The indictment, which noted that lawyer Efkan Bolaç was among those recorded on the program, claimed that there was an arrest warrant against Bolaç on charges of “terrorism propaganda.” The prosecution also noted that journalist Cevheri Güven was recorded and that he was wanted on charges of “membership in the FETÖ.”

The prosecution noted that Baştürk had worked at the Taraf newspaper between 2009 and 2015 and recalled that the newspaper had been closed down by a decree-law on the grounds of its “affiliation with, links to and connection to FETÖ.”

Charges relating to the use of Signal

One of the charges brought against the journalists in this case is the presence on their mobile phones of the messaging app Signal – which has an estimated 40 to 70 million active users worldwide – and the fact that they received a message containing a download link for the Signal app. Whilst the Signal app installed on the phone of Melisa Efe, the interpreter due to appear before the judge, was cited as evidence of a crime, the fact that journalist Semra Pelek had received a message containing a download link for the app was used as a basis for the charge against her. The indictment alleged that, regarding the Signal app, “there is open-source information indicating that, following 15 July 2016, the FETÖ and its members used the Signal app instead of the ByLock messaging application.”

“I used it to earn a living”

Journalist Semra Pelek stated that the telephone conversations she had with her colleagues, which had become the subject of the charges, were part of her professional duties. Pelek explained that Selahattin Sevi, with whom she had previously worked at the Milliyet newspaper, had called her during the pandemic, and had mentioned a website he intended to set up based on photographs; Sevi had asked her whether she could translate news articles from the German press into Turkish in exchange for a fee, as part of the preparations for the website. Pelek explained that he had translated and sent back the news articles Sevi had sent him, adding that he had received a fee for the translations and had used this money to make ends meet. Pelek said that Doğan Ertuğrul, whom she had met whilst working at Tempo magazine, had contacted her a few years ago to offer her an editorship at the Kronos news website, but that she had declined the offer.

Translator Melisa Efe also stated that she was unfamiliar with the websites “Free Journalist” and “Kronos,” which had been mentioned in the questions put to her.

Eylem Emel Yılmaz, one of the journalists due to appear before the judge, also stated that she had prepared news articles for the Ahval and Kronos websites in return for a fee, and that, in addition to these sites, she had also prepared interviews and news articles for the Journo, Yeşil Gazete, Euronews Türkçe and Independent Türkçe websites in return for a fee.

“Organic link to FETÖ” charge

Kurdish journalist Metin Yoksu also stated that he had prepared news articles for the Kronos website on several occasions in return for payment, noting that Selahattin Sevi had offered him work but that he had declined because the working arrangements were unsuitable. The indictment alleges that Metin Yoksu’s actions “indicate an organic link with the FETÖ,” claiming that his actions cannot be regarded as journalistic activity and that his defenses are aimed at evading criminal liability.

One of the individuals to be tried in the case is the website developer Ozan Cırık. Cırık stated that, following a meeting with Doğan Ertuğrul in 2018, he had agreed to maintain the Kronos website and address any technical issues, and that this work had concluded in early 2025. Cırık had taken part in relief efforts for earthquake victims following the Maraş earthquakes in February 2023. During his gendarmerie interrogation, the TL 300 he had sent to volunteers was recorded in the case file as evidence of a criminal offense.

Following a decision on lack of jurisdiction, the indictment was forwarded to Istanbul and subsequently accepted by the Istanbul 26th High Criminal Court. The court ruled that the judicial control measures imposed on the journalists should continue. The court also requested that a letter be sent to the General Directorate of Asya Participation Bank asking for details of any account transactions by the journalists on trial, should they have any. The court requested that a letter be sent to the Istanbul Organized Crime Branch Directorate to conduct an enquiry regarding the journalists and ordered a search of the “organized crime database” in relation to them.

Background of the case

The journalists were detained on 13 June 2025 by gendarmes and transported by road to Artvin. The journalists – Eylem Emel Yılmaz, Dicle Baştürk, Yavuz Akengin and Ozan Cırık – were held in custody for three days before being sent to pre-trial detention on 16 June and spent one month in prison. The journalists’ detention and prison conditions also came under scrutiny. DİSK Basın-İş issued a statement regarding the conditions faced by journalist Eylem Yılmaz in prison, reporting that, on the grounds of overcrowding, Yılmaz had not been provided with a bed and had been forced to sleep on the floor on a single blanket. Journalist Metin Yoksu was also arrested at Batman Courthouse on 26 June where he had gone to give his statement, and was subsequently imprisoned pending trial. Yoksu was released one month later, on 25 July 2025