PM says no one arrested for journalistic activities in Turkey


Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, replying to questions at a dinner in the Swiss city of Davos Thursday, said to be realistic when accusing Turkey of arresting journalists and that no journalist in Turkey was arrested due to journalistic activities.When a journalist asked Davutoğlu to release the arrested journalists in his G20 term presidency, Davutoğlu said that all the accusations against Turkey are baseless and added: "Those who alleged that journalists are imprisoned in Turkey should give me their names. These are judicial cases. As prime minister, I have no authority to arrest or release someone. It is the duty of the courts. You know that you cannot ask this kind of question of an EU minister since they do not have such authority. The same goes for Turkey, too."He also counted only seven journalists in prison Turkey and the reason for their imprisonment is not journalistic activities.Davutoğlu directly addressed the journalist who asked the question and said: "Please, give me the name of your journalist friend. I assure you that we will go to visit him or her together to show my support for journalism. I was a columnist in the 1990s and I know what media freedom means very well. Although I have no authority to arrest or detain someone, I would like to find out who is your journalist friend."Even though Turkey came under criticism with claims that there are dozens of journalists under arrest in the country, Turkish officials said that there are only seven journalists who have been arrested and the reason for their arrest is terrorist activities. Most journalists who were later released were allegedly arrested by Gülen Movement-linked judges and prosecutors and apart from those whose crimes were justified by Turkish courts were later released. The Gülen Movement, which allegedly infiltrated key government institutions, is accused of trying to topple the elected government, and they are accused of carrying out a smear campaign against Turkey in international platforms.Calling for a reform of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC), Davutoğlu gave the crises in Palestine and Syria as examples of unsolved problems stemming from the veto rights of five permanent countries in the UNSC."We suggest that there is a need for UN reform," Davutoğlu said, adding that Turkey has no problem with the permanent states, but the current structure is not able to respond to the on-going crisis.The UNSC having five permanent members has been criticized by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who said: "The world is bigger than five." Turkey has previously been a non-permanent member of the UNSC in 1951-1952 and 1954-1955 as well as in 2009-2010 when it was elected with a resounding 151 votes. Last year in September, Turkey once again competed to gain non-permanent member seat on the council. Competing with Spain and New Zealand, Turkey lost to Spain in the third round. Other seats on the council were taken by Angola, Malaysia and Venezuela with no competition from other states.Touching on the importance of an international crisis management mechanism, Davutoğlu said the council should include all of humanity.