Journalist Hakkı Boltan, who was detained in a raid on his home in Diyarbakır on February 19, was released on 20 February under the condition of judicial control. Accused of “acting on behalf of the organization” and “making propaganda for the organization”, Boltan stated that he had been continuing his work as a journalist for 15 years, said he had been summoned for depositions before many times and he always accepted those invitations. Boltan said storming his house and detaining him despite the fact that he always went when summoned is intimidation. Boltan stated that they asked the same things he gave statements about before. 

 

Boltan speaking about the detention process, said the special operation police tried to break down his door around 06.30 in the morning but he opened the door before they could break it and faced guns pointing at him. Boltan telling that the police locked him and his guests at home into a room, said the police conducted a search for hours in his place and confiscated his notes as a journalist as 'organizational documents'. Boltan said there was a warrant against him but he was not explained why he was being detained.

 

Boltan, explaining that he has been working as a journalists, a columnist and editor, said: "The government knows this. To storm a journalist's house like this means 'We don't want free press'. This is an operation threatening journalism as a profession."

 

2005’ten bugüne sahada muhabirlikten editörlüğe, köşe yazarlığından gazeteci örgütlerinde eşbaşkanlığına kadar aktif olarak çalışan Boltan, “Bunu en iyi de devlet biliyor. Böylesine hoyratça, bir gazetecinin evinin basılması ‘biz gazeteciliği, gazetecilik yapılmasını istemiyoruz’ demektir. Bu evime yapılan bir baskın ama Türkiye’deki özgür basının evine yapılan bir baskındır. Bu anlamda özgür gazeteciliği tehdit eden bir operasyondur” ifadelerini kaydetti.

 

Stating that the police questioning aimed at criminalizing the journalism profession, said they described the commemoration of Apê Musa and the martyrs of the press as a terrorist activity.  The congresses and conferences we attended as journalists were brought before us as a crime. For us, these are not crimes, they are an activity that should be done."

 

Boltan emphasizing that there is a great attack against journalism in Turkey, said: "They storm your house and confiscate everything. They say you are not a journalist but a terrorist. This is a horrible assault on journalism. They shot down our newspapers, televisions, they prevent us from selling our papers, prevent the people from reading them.  Despite this, we will do journalism. We will continue our activities by putting the journalism Apê Musa have done at the center of our work."