Ahead of his upcoming hearing, P24 contacted Abdurrahman Gök through his lawyer for an interview on the charges against him in his ongoing trial, his career as a journalist, and his prison conditions

 

ÇAĞRI SARI

 

Journalist Abdurrahman Gök, who has been behind bars since April, is set to appear before a criminal court in Diyarbakır next week for the latest hearing of his trial on “terrorism” charges.

 

The case file contains a number of strange allegations against Gök, an editor for Mezopotamya News Agency (MA), who was arrested on charges of “membership in a terrorist organization” and “terrorism propaganda.” They are strange allegations, because some of the evidence for the charge of “membership in a terrorist organization” against Gök is based on the possession of books anyone may order online, the social security account his employer set up for him; and photos he took in northern Syria as a journalist. Witness testimony by Ümit Akbıyık, one of the most popular persons to have turned “state’s evidence” recently with statements in approximately 600 court files, is held as the grounds for the accusations against Gök.

 

Ahead of his upcoming hearing scheduled for 5 December 2023 at the Diyarbakır 5th High Criminal Court, P24 contacted Gök through his lawyer for an interview on the charges against him in his ongoing trial, his career as a journalist, and his prison conditions.

 

Gök says the main motive behind his arrest was his photos documenting the 2017 murder of university student Kemal Kurkut. He also points out many contradictions in the indictment against him.

 

Gök has been a journalist for nearly 20 years. His main aim is to provide some respite to people with his reporting. The public know him for his photos of Kemal Kurkut, which probably deserve all the awards for journalism as they laid bare a murder that would otherwise have been covered-up.

 

However, it would be a disservice to Gök to mention him only in connection with his photos of Kemal Kurkut. Gök also covered the Jîna Amînî protests in Iran. He was in Sinjar during ISIS attacks and at the side of “Aunt Fidan” after the deadly Maraş earthquakes. Now, he would like to be in Gaza. He also wants to follow Rojava closely. However, he has been in remand for seven months.

 

The truth revealed by 28 snapshots

 

* Let’s go back to the morning of Newroz in 2017 and talk once more about the story of your Kemal Kurkut photos. What exactly happened on that day?

 

In 2017, both political parties and civil society organizations had worked hard for Newroz to be celebrated jubilantly in the Newroz square in Diyarbakır. I think it was the first time Newroz celebrations had been allowed for many years. Of course, as it often does, the government was carrying out propaganda that the Kurdish political movement no longer had a popular base. The Kurdish political movement wanted to disprove this claim by showing what the Newroz square looked like. In fact, on Newroz day, people started arriving from all Kurdish towns, not just Diyarbakır.

 

It was a very significant Newroz day. I wanted to follow the day as a journalist. In the morning, I arrived at Alataş Avenue, where the VIP and press entrance was located. There were many fellow journalists gathered there. We were kept waiting on the pretext of searches. We occasionally heard about tensions running high at search points from fellow journalists. Around 8 a.m. I heard gunshots and turned around and started hitting the trigger of my camera, which was ready to go, from where I stood. I saw the young man lying chest bare behind the armored anti-riot vehicle. The police came up to me. I took out my camera’s memory card to hide it. Because in what little time it took for all this to happen, I knew the police would detain me and confiscate my photos. And in fact, the police officer who had told me to move away while I still had the memory card in my hand soon came up to me and said his superior wanted to see me. Walking behind the officer, I put the memory card into my back pocket. When the police asked for the memory card, I gave them my spare from my pocket. Then they let me go. Of course, I immediately rang up the news center and told them that a young man around 20, who was naked from the waist, had been shot by the police at a search point and was taken to hospital. At first, I did not dare mention the photo. I had been tasked with taking photos of the stage. About two hours later, editors from the news center called me and said, “You said the young man who was shot was naked from the waist up, but news agencies are running it as a suicide bomber.” Later, I wrote about what had happened and my observations. I looked at what the governor’s office had said. We put up the 28 snapshots I had taken in 40 seconds along with my observations from the scene and what the governor’s office was saying.

 

* What impact did your report make when it was published?

 

The report and the photos rocked social media. They were the main item on the agenda in a short time. There was a lot of reaction to “the governor’s office misleading the people.” A few media organizations, both pro-government and not, first continued to overlook my photos, but then they had to run my story. Someone related to the young man got in contact with us and told us that the deceased was Kemal Kurkut and he studied music at the university. We also learned that his funeral would be held in Malatya.

 

Of course, his family did not believe that their son could have done such a thing. In fact, I learned that they had nearly come to believe what they were being told due to the intense coverage, but were reassured in the innocence of their son by my photos. When this information and what happened next was published, TV networks and agencies could no longer turn a blind eye.

 

* How did the judicial process go? Are those police officers still in the service?

 

Under intense public pressure, the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office began an investigation. The two police officers appeared before the court with a request for their arrest. The court ruled to release the officers. The prosecutor objected. However, the objection was rejected. Later, the Ministry of Interior assigned an inspector. A decision not to prosecute was taken for one of the police officers. Therefore, the indictment on the incident was issued for one police officer who was free pending trial. The defendant officer was suspended from duty. Upon a request from the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, I gave a statement about my photos and testimony to the public prosecutor and handed in the photographs I had taken. A case was filed against the defendant police officer calling for an aggravated life sentence. I was heard as a witness at the first hearing. At the hearing, we learned that three months after filing an objection, the officer had been reinstated and that he would be attending the hearings as a police officer. This was a sign of what was to come in the Kemal Kurkut murder case. Despite shots having been fired directly, the court expert’s report said “it was not true.” And so one hearing followed another. When the prosecutors changed, the prosecution reduced the sought sentence and the trial continued. Eventuıally, the defendant was acquitted. What we witnessed was an example of impunity for a crime committed in broad daylight, because the defendant was a police officer.

 

* The historical photograph which changed the course of the trial is also seen as the reason for the pressure brought down on you, and in fact as the reason for you being in remand today. Do you agree?

 

This is unfortunately true. After the photos were published, I was subjected to many threats from tailing and wiretapping to anonymous phone calls and house raids. I was detained many times. Cases were filed against me. And today, I am jailed pending trial. The main motivation behind the trial and my remand is my photos of Kemal Kurkut.

 

* You had experienced police violence several times before, but the last six years it has been of another kind. Did you think that all this could happen to you because of this photo?

 

To be honest, as someone who knew what happened to those who have remained on the side of the truth and tried to reveal it throughout history and chose to struggle for the truth, when those photos were published, I thought that much worse than what I have experienced would happen to me, that I would be killed. My friends and family were very concerned for me. After the photos were out, there were some who told me I should not have published them, I should not have disclosed my name. But then, how could I have faced my own conscience? If I had not published them, how would Kemal Korkut’s mother get to find out about her son’s innocence? She kissed me on the eyes several times, saying, “It was these eyes that witnessed the last moments of my Kemal.” How could I have relieved her pain otherwise? This also meant standing up for the dignity of journalism. So, I do not regret any of it in the least.

 

* You were sentenced to 18 months and 22 days of imprisonment for the photograph. What was the reason?

 

After the publication of Kemal Korkut photos, the police raided my home. As I was at work at the time, I went in to give a statement. They told me there had been a complaint against me. I was not told what the complaint was about. This resulted in a decision not to prosecute. I was called in to give a statement again for the same investigation file, also in 2017. That was also dropped. In October 2018 the police once more raided my home. I was released after giving a statement at the police department after spending three days in custody.

 

Following the acquittal of the defendant police officer, a new indictment against me was filed. It called for imprisonment of up to 22 years and 6 months for “membership in a terrorist organization” and “terrorism propaganda.” However, the charges were based entirely on my journalistic activities. There is a photo of me taken in Sinjar, Kobane in 2014. I was tried, free pending trial, due to an indictment that consisted of nothing but news reports and news photos -- again based on testimony by a secret witness. There were statements such as, “He took those photos under instructions from the organization.”

 

* Some statements by someone who turned state’s evidence were included in your file, despite not being about you. At the first hearing, it became apparent that the prosecutor did not know about this.

 

The records for my phone conversations were presented as evidence to the charges. Of course, I answered them all. But I was still referred to the court with a request for my arrest and subsequently I was arrested. This shows that my arrest had already been decided beforehand and all the other stages were just a formality. I was arrested on completely trumped-up charges. Because, as we learned when the indictment was issued an accepted, state’s evidence Ümit Akbıyık had asked about me, and then claimed that I worked at Pel Productions company although I did not; that I had produced and sent programs to channels broadcasting in Europe; that I had practiced journalism under instructions from the organization. My reporting disproved all these claims, but I have been in remand for more than six months. The social security premiums paid by the Mezopotamya News Agency were also presented as evidence of my “membership in a terrorist organization.” A book written by journalist Kadri Gürsel is also included among the evidence.

 

* Could you go into a bit more detail?

 

Consider that according to the statements by this person, I am alleged to be a “member of a terrorist organization” because I worked at Pel Productions. And I was arrested for this reason. However, they also added the social security records which show that I am a reporter for the MA. They must have realized the contradiction, because the indictment reads: “The suspect is registered with the MA in order to obtain a press card.” However, one does not need a social security registration to obtain a press card. In any case, Pel Productions could also have issued me a press card by registering me for social security. It is a duly established company. It has dozens of employees and is still active. At my first hearing I said, “The prosecutor has included all this in the indictment, but did not give any reasons, so I don’t know how to defend myself.”

 

The indictment includes a publicity piece for a book of poems, published in MA on 4 February 2021. Once, 64-year-old Elif Kısa was arrested along with her spouse Ali Kısa on 3 December International Day of Persons with Disability due to a statement against them by a secret witness. The indictment includes reporting on the letter her son had written to the then-Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gül. It includes an interview and a report on the Libyan Civil War dated 26 January 2021. When my home was searched, a book on the massacre at Zilan River and Kadri Gürsel’s book Dağdakiler, published by Metis, that were in my library were confiscated. They were listed as criminal evidence in the indictment.

 

* How do you see the position of the judiciary, based on these accusations leveled at a journalist?

 

I think the readers of this interview will have a clearer interpretation of its position.

 

* While your photo of Kemal Kurkut will make press history, you have done so much other significant work. You went from street to street in the aftermath of the earthquakes of 6 February 2023. Your video with “Aunt Fidan” was much spoken about at the time. During the Mahsa Amini uprising in Iran last year, you went there and carried out multifaceted interviews. You received the Musa Anter Award for Journalism for that series. You have been in prison for months. Have you ever thought about which events you would be reporting on if you were free? For example, there is the Hamas-Israel war.

 

I’ve been a journalist for more than 20 years, with the last 12 in conflict zones. In 2011, I traveled to Syria as soon as the civil war began. In 2014, I reported on what was happening in Sinjar and Kobane. In 2017, I covered the operation against Raqqah in the field. I followed the process that began with the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran. They were all difficult processes. However, you can only deal with your own traumas when you can bring people at least a little respite with your reporting. You contribute to the solution of many problems when you practice human-centered, environment-centered journalism and focus on human stories. My imprisonment has been a bit of a disruption, of course. Whenever I watch TV, I think, “I could have been in Gaza now.” When Gaza is attacked, it can find a place for itself in the news. However, there are hospitals and civilian settlements in Rojava too and they never make the news. When I don’t see them on TV, or read about them in the newspapers, I better understand why I’m in remand.

 

* Let’s also talk about daily life in prison. How many people do you stay with, do you have difficulty accessing books and newspapers?

 

There are three of us in the ward. Of course, we spend most of our day reading. Unfortunately, we are not given newspapers such as Yeni Yaşam, Evrensel and BirGün. We also cannot watch channels such as Halk TV, KRT and Tele 1. So, as you can guess, I’m bombarded by a barrage of pro-government news.