The journalist arrest fuel fears for democracy

The early morning was on March 23 when the police came to the Yasin Akgul door in Istanbul – while his children were still in bed. Just hours ago, the Turkish photographer, the Turkish photographer, returned to the house to cover the mass protests to combat the government. Now he was a required man.

“I went to the door and saw that there are a lot of police,” he says. “They said they had an arrest order for me, but they did not give me any details. My son was awake, and I could not even tell him what was happening because I did not get it myself.”

AKGUL, 35, has witnessed a “lot of work” for more than a decade as a photo with the news agency of Agence France-Presse-from Syria, which was torn by the IS-controlled Iraq. On the homeland in Türkiye, he was beaten by the police several times while taking pictures, including on World Peace Day – and he was arrested “several times.”

But the arrest of the house was the first.

He tells us: “The cold fell on the house.” “In my work, in the protests, I saw a lot of violence and tear gas, but I felt the police in my house, I felt more fear.”

Akgul was one of seven journalists who were arrested at dawn raids. All of them have been covering the protests caused by the arrest of the mayor of the opposition in the city, Ikram Imamoglu-the main political opponent of the Turkish leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The demonstrators say that the arrest of the mayor on charges of corruption, which he denies, has political motives – an attempt to end his hopes to become the next president in the country.

The authorities banned the protests, but they were unable to stop them.

Akgul is concerned with “participation in illegal gatherings and marches.” He says the goal is clear – to prevent others from taking pictures of the largest turmoil in Türkiye for more than a decade.

It was in your thick – a gas mask – when he took some of the most famous pictures at night.

His photos show a man wearing the role of Darwish (mystic dance), which has before a line from the riot police-striking photos of a battle for the spirit of Türkiye that went around the world, before it landed behind the bars.

He says, “This message to all journalists.” “Do not imagine (taking pictures), do not speak, do not imagine. They fear other journalists that if they return to the field, they may face the same thing.” The fact that it works in an international news agency, AFP, makes this message higher, he thinks.

It was received and understood.

“After our arrest, many independent journalists could not shoot the next day. Everyone was afraid,” he told us, sitting on his sofa at home with his wife Hazal to his side.

Their three -year -old daughter, APIC, is on the sofa, holding her father’s hand. Their son, UMUT, eight years old, listened to a Harry Potter -style hat and glasses.

Akgul believes that those arrested were carefully chosen – among them veteran photographers. “They are trying to get us out of the front lines,” he says.

Many of his friends – his fellow journalists – have already removed themselves, leaving Türkiye because they faced charges or fear that they would do so.

At the present time, his family is among many anxiety here that the courts can torn them. The government says the judiciary is independent. Human rights groups say judges are under political control, and Turkish democracy is eroded, on an annual basis.

President Erdogan – who has many loyal supporters – keeps a narrow grip on power tools. He says that the protests are “street terrorism” and accuse the opposition of the “violence movement”. He expected that the demonstrations would fade.

maybe. Maybe not.

When Yasin Akgul was released from prison on the morning of March 27, Mark Lewin was deported from BBC from Istanbul, after 17 hours of detention. He obtained papers saying it was “a threat to public order.”

The authorities said later – after informing the BBC about the story – that he was deported because he lacks dependence.

Not only journalists at risk. One of the mayors was arrested for a brief period “on an imaginary basis”, according to the Social Media Center, which was sent by Ikrim Imamoglu from his cell in a high security prison.

He fights his legal team, but they also feel cold.

“The right to defense is sacred,” says Ece Guner, a lawyer and advisor to the mayor.

She tells us: “It will be a lie to say that no one is concerned, to be honest,” but we still feel that we are a duty towards our country in saying the truth, preserving democracy, and the rule of law. “

Where is Turkish democracy now? Some fear here that at the last moments.

In the past two weeks or so – since the protests began on March 19 – about 2000 people have been arrested, according to the Interior Ministry of Türkiye.

Many of these students and members of Erdogan-generation-those who only knew the rule of Türkiye’s long time. Their arrest sends another message.

“It is a great warning to young people, and it is a loud and clear warning-don’t participate,” says Emma Senkler Web, Türkiye’s director of Human Rights Watch.

It says the government also “launches in all directions against the perceived opposition” from any quarter, and not only the Republic of the mayor (CHP), the main opposition party here.

“General bodies are threatened,” she says. “If they speak and use their voices with power, there is an attempt to strangle them immediately.”

It is expected that the coming months will witness continuous attempts to reduce the protests, and “make them invisible.”

This will not be difficult to consider the spacious government’s control of the media here. The huge demonstrations that have so far led the bulletins on state television and the pro -government outlets, and when they showed that the demonstrators participated to the terrorists.

The last gathering – at the end of last week – It attracted several hundreds of thousands of people. The opposition claims that more than two million people have attended.

Some families have brought several generations with them to hear invitations to change under the warm sunlight. We have seen the presence of the usual heavy police, but this time there was no tear gas or rubber bullets. This gathering has not been banned.

Among the crowd, we met Alp, 32, who said he came to defend democracy while there is still time. We did not ask for the title – many demonstrators prefer not to give them. He said he was concerned about the risk of arrest.

“The police collect students, women and workers like us,” he said.

“So, we are all in danger at the present time. But we have to stand. This is our only option. If we do nothing, only if we see, you have already lost the battle.”

The opposition returns to keeping pace with its protests and carrying it in the streets. It is necessary to present the presidential elections from 2028.

Opposition polls indicate that President Erdogan will lose to IMamoglu – if he is released from prison and is able to run as a candidate.

The president himself should not be able to run – because he is already in his second term – but there is speculation here that he can try to change the constitution.

The opposition insists on the presence of weekly protests from now on. If so, the arrests will surely continue.

It is not clear whether the case of Yassin Akgul will go to the trial, but the charges against him remain. Despite the danger that he hopes to continue telling the story here.

“Someone needs to do this job, and I think I am one of these people,” he says.