The Ankara Regional Court of Justice has upheld prison sentences handed down to seven Kurdish journalists on charges of “membership in a terrorist organization,” the Expression Interrupted press freedom watchdog reported.
The ruling concerns a case in which the Ankara 4th High Criminal Court in July 2024 had sentenced Mezopotamya Agency (MA) and JINNEWS reporters Diren Yurtsever, Selman Güzelyüz, Hakan Yalçın, Emrullah Acar, Zemo Ağgöz, Öznur Değer, Deniz Nazlım and Berivan Altan to more than six years in prison each.
The regional court upheld the sentences of seven of the defendants but overturned Altan’s conviction, noting that her case is linked to another ongoing trial before a different court on similar charges.
The regional court also finalized the acquittal of JINNEWS reporter Habibe Eren, MA reporter Ceylan Şahinli and former MA intern Mehmet Günhan, who had been cleared of the charges.
In the detailed ruling, the court accused the journalists of recruiting for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and boosting the morale of its members and sympathizers. The judges said their reports portrayed Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the PKK, as a victim of unlawful treatment and alleged that the state mistreats Kurds and that the army uses chemical weapons.
Founded in the late 1970s by Abdullah Öcalan, the PKK took up arms in 1984, beginning a series of bloody attacks on Turkish soil that sparked a conflict which cost more than 40,000 lives. But more than four decades on, the PKK in May announced its dissolution, saying it would pursue a democratic struggle to defend the rights of the Kurdish minority in line with a historic call by Öcalan, who has been serving a life sentence in Turkey since 1999.
The decision was based on the journalists’ publications, social media posts and funds transfers among themselves as well as books and magazines confiscated during raids on their homes, their communication with colleagues and sources and witness testimony against them.
The journalists’ lawyers said they will appeal the ruling before the Supreme Court of Appeals.
Kurdish journalists in Turkey frequently face legal harassment, stand trial and are sentenced to prison for covering issues related to Kurds and the PKK, which is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
Turkey, which remains one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists according to press freedom organizations, was ranked 159th out of 180 countries in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
