A Turkish court has sentenced Siirt mayor Sofya Alağaş to more than six years in prison on terrorism charges for alleged membership in the outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), the BBC Turkish service reported on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse after the verdict was announced, Alağaş, a member of the pro-Kurdish People’s Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), called the ruling “an attack on the will of the Kurdish people.”
“We did not give up yesterday, we are not giving up today, and we will not give up tomorrow,” she said. “This court has once again confirmed the state’s enmity toward Kurds.”
Alağaş, who was elected Siirt mayor in the last municipal elections in 2024, previously served as the news director of Jin News, a women-focused pro-Kurdish news agency. She was arrested on June 16, 2022 during an investigation led by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, which also targeted 15 other journalists.
Prosecutors accused Alağaş of creating news content that allegedly “provoked violence, incited blame against the state and promoted sympathy for the PKK, labelling her work as “PKK journalism.”
Alağaş alleged that the legal process was expedited unfairly, citing incomplete case files and unresolved investigations. “The court ignored these issues, hastened the trial and made its ruling,” she said.
The PKK, designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies, has been waging a bloody war in Turkey’s southeast since 1984. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict.
During the first hearing on June 15, 2023 at the Diyarbakır 5th High Criminal Court, Alağaş was released with a travel ban. Tuesday’s ruling finalizes her conviction, drawing widespread criticism from rights advocates and political groups.
Sabahat Erdoğan Sarıtaş, a member of parliament from the DEM Party, criticized the decision as politically motivated. “This unjust ruling targets our co-mayor solely because she serves as the co-mayor of Siirt. We do not recognize this decision,” Sarıtaş said.
The DEM Party also condemned the ruling on social media, saying, “The ruling party continues to weaponize the judiciary. The prison sentence for our Siirt Co-Mayor Sofya Alağaş is a politically orchestrated decision.”
Veysel Ok, co-director of the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA), criticized the indictment, calling it baseless and politically motivated.
“The indictment lists 30 news articles as evidence. These articles focus on issues like Abdullah Öcalan [the imprisoned leader of the PKK], women and political prisoners,” Ok said. “These articles might shock or disturb some people, but the Constitutional Court has ruled that such reporting cannot constitute a crime.”
Turkey, which became the world’s biggest prison for journalists in 2018 during a state of emergency imposed after a coup attempt, was ranked 158th of 180 countries in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders.