ANKARA — Turkish authorities arrested on Tuesday prominent Turkish journalist Merdan Yanardag over criticizing the government-imposed isolation on imprisoned Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The arrest was made following his detention by Turkish police on Monday, and an arrest warrant issued by the Istanbul court.
Speaking in a live broadcast last week, Yanardag, editor-in-chief of pro-opposition Tele1 TV channel, criticized the yearslong isolation imposed on Ocalan, leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who has been serving a life sentence on Imrali island in the Marmara Sea, south of Istanbul, since 1999. “There is no legal ground for the isolation imposed on Abdullah Ocalan. This should be lifted. He is not even allowed to see his family members or his lawyers,” Yanardag said.
Turkish authorities have been denying the militant leader’s request to see his lawyers and relatives since 2021. The Turkish government held direct talks with Ocalan and the PKK as part of a peace process initiated in 2009, in a bid to end the country’s Kurdish conflict that has claimed more than 40,000 lives. The talks collapsed in 2015. The PKK, which has been waging an armed conflict against the Turkish state since 1984, is designated as a terrorist group by Ankara and the majority of Western capitals.
