Turkish man attacked for trying to ask question to Can Dündar in Switzerland

A Turkish citizen was physically attacked after being denied to ask a question to Can Dündar during a panel at the University of Zurich on Thursday.

Dündar, former editor-in-chief of the Turkish Cumhuriyet daily who has an ongoing detention warrant in Turkey for aiding the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), which carried out the July 15 failed coup attempt, spoke at the 9^th Right Livelihood Award-Lecture at Zurich University, where the moderator of the event did not allow a Turkish citizen named Mehmet Çek to ask a short question to Dündar.

After being denied to ask his question, Çek tried to address Dündar from the distant balcony he was standing on, but was cut short when he was physically attacked by a group of FETÖ and PKK supporters who also attended the event and was forced to leave.

"The panel was about press freedom, but I was hindered while trying to ask my question. In Europe you can talk against Turkey, but talking in favor of Turkey is forbidden. This cannot be freedom," Çek told the press after the incident.

Dündar faces espionage and terror charges for his affiliation with FETÖ, as well as for releasing a confidential footage of a raid conducted against National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks in 2014. He was sentenced by a court to five years and 10 months in prison for revealing state secrets in May, but was later freed when the Constitutional Court ruled against his arrest during trial. In November a Turkish court issued a detention warrant for aiding FETÖ.

Dündar has been residing in Germany since he fled there shortly before the failed July 15 coup attempt. Germany not only provided shelter to Dündar but also issued a temporary passport for him, and allowed him to stay in the country and travel abroad even if his Turkish passport becomes cancelled.

The defeated July 15 coup, carried out by FETÖ, had left 246 people killed and nearly 2,200 injured.

Fetullah Gülen, leader of FETÖ, is the mastermind suspect behind the coup attempt and a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary, forming what is commonly referred to as the "parallel state."