March 11, 2016•Update: March 12, 2016
ANKARA
The decision of the Constitutional Court to free two journalists accused of espionage and terror offenses was against the “country and nation,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday.
Cumhuriyet newspaper’s editor-in-chief Can Dundar and Erdem Gul, its Ankara bureau chief, were freed from prison two weeks ago after the court found their rights had been violated. They still face trial on charges of espionage, attempting to overthrow the government and supporting terrorism.
The journalists had been in custody since late November last year, when they were arrested after Cumhuriyet published images in May 2015 purportedly showing shells and ammunition loaded on Syria-bound trucks belonging to Turkey's National Intelligence Organization.
“The Constitutional Court is one of the institutions that should be most responsive to its country rights and interests,” Erdogan said at an event in Burdur, southwest Turkey.
He added that the court “did not hesitate to find against the country and nation.”
On Wednesday, the court said the arrests had been against “[free] speech and press freedom”.
Erdogan also praised Turkish army operations in the southeastern part of the country.
Interior Minister Efkan Ala said Thursday that the longest-running anti-terrorism operation in Sur, the historic quarter of Diyarbakir, Turkey, had come to an end.
Erdogan stressed that the operations will continue if needed.
“The cleaning [operation] needs to continue, and today at least eight PKK terrorists were killed in Sur,” he said.
The operation in Sur was the longest running of a series of anti-terror actions across the southeast that saw security forces oust the PKK from urban areas. The operations involved round-the-clock curfews as police and soldiers removed barricades, ditches, and booby-traps.
The PKK - listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and EU - resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in July. Since then, more than 290 members of the security forces have been martyred and thousands of terrorists killed
