Müyesser Yıldız, the Ankara news director of the ultranationalist OdaTV news website, who was earlier detained by Turkish authorities as part of a probe into alleged military espionage, was arrested by an Ankara court on June 11 on charges of revealing state secrets, the Anadolu news agency reported.
Yıldız had been taken into custody on June 8 on allegations of “military espionage.”
Ismail Dükel, the Ankara representative of the TELE 1 TV channel, and a noncommissioned officer identified only by the initials E.B., were also detained by the police and taken to the counterterrorism unit of the Ankara Police Department for questioning.
Yıldız and E.B. were put under formal arrest, while Dükel was released under judicial supervision by an Ankara penal court of peace.
According to lawyer Erhan Tokatlı, representing Yıldız, his client was arrested on charges of revealing state secrets in two articles she wrote about Ankara’s military involvement in Libya.
Yıldız is widely known for her back channel sourcing of news on military affairs and reported extensively on a 2016 coup attempt. Her reports, in some cases, disputed the government narrative on the abortive putsch.
Commenting before her arrest Yıldız said through her lawyer that she was specially targeted in an operation and that some people do not want the background the July 2016 coup attempt to be questioned.
Turkey experienced a military coup attempt on the night of July 15, 2016 which, according to many, was a false flag aimed at entrenching Erdoğan’s authoritarian rule by rooting out dissidents and eliminating powerful actors such as the military in his desire for absolute power.
