Turkish authorities on Tuesday detained human rights defender Mehmet Acettin, co-owner of the Etkin News Agency (ETHA), on accusations of financing a terrorist organization, the Bianet news website reported.
Acettin was taken into custody as part of an investigation launched by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office into allegations that funds were channeled through the Marksist Teori (Marxist Theory) magazine to the outlawed Marxist Leninist Communist Party (MLKP), which is listed as a terrorist organization in Turkey.
As part of the same investigation, prosecutors also took a statement from ETHA editor Nadiye Gürbüz, who is currently held at Bakırköy Women’s Prison. Detention warrants were also issued for Tülin Gür and Hüseyin Dağdeviren, the current and former managing editors of Marksist Teori.
Acettin was being held at the İstanbul Police Department, where he is being questioned.
He was previously detained on February 3 in an operation targeting left-wing groups, during which 80 people were arrested in successive waves of raids. He was later released under house arrest pending trial.
United Nations experts had urged Turkey in March to end what they described as the criminalization of human rights defenders and lawyers, citing cases including Acettin’s and warning that charges such as terrorism financing and membership in a terrorist organization risked being used to target rights work.
The case comes amid growing criticism from rights groups and opposition parties that Turkey’s broad counterterrorism laws are being used to target political opponents, journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders.
The trend has also been echoed in international assessments. Freedom in the World 2026, published by Freedom House, which assesses political rights and civil liberties, classifies Turkey as ‘Not Free, pointing to one of the sharpest declines in freedoms globally over the past two decades under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
