Blind journalist questioned by police for refusing to recognize colleague as ‘terrorist’

Arat, who had spent two years in jail due to alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement following a coup attempt in Turkey in 2016, announced on Twitter on Monday that he was questioned by the police due to his remarks about the Gülen movement, journalist Bülent Keneş and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

 

The Gülen movement is accused of masterminding the coup attempt on July 15, 2016 and is labelled a terrorist organization by the Turkish government. The movement, inspired by the views of Turkish-Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, strongly denies any involvement in the failed putsch or any terrorist activity.

Arat was asked about some of his earlier tweets during his interrogation at the Adana Police Department in southern Turkey in which he refused to recognize the Gülen movement and Keneş as terrorists.

Last year, Turkey’s pro-government Sabah daily and state-run TRT Haber news station targeted Keneş by publishing secretly taken photos of him and broadcasting footage of his home in Stockholm.

Keneş, an outspoken critic of the Turkish government, gained international attention after Turkey made his extradition a prerequisite for its approval of Sweden’s NATO membership.

He is among the scores of Turkish journalists who had to flee Turkey following the coup attempt in order to avoid the government crackdown on critical journalists.