Journalist Aykol: Aziz Oruç is a journalist and he is my student

2019-12-16 12:38:32


	VAN - Journalist Hüseyin Aykolü, stating that Aziz Oruç who have been under police custody for 6 days is a student of him, said: "We are witnesses that he is a journalist from the beginning. He is one of my students and we will tell the whole world about his journalism."

	Aykol stating that Oruç is a journalist and everyone following the news from the Kurdish press is a witness that he is a journalist, said: "Everyone who follows the news from the Kurdish press, not only from the newspapers but from the televisions knows that Oruç is a journalist. He has been in Roajava, in Van, in many places doing his job. In that sense, if we were to find witnesses, everyone will come give their statements that he is a journalist."

	 

	Aykol, recalling the statement of the Ministry of Interrior labeling Oruç as a 'terrorist', said: "The aim of this statement is to scare the prosecutor and the judge to acquit Oruç. They would feel compelled to arresting him thinking they lack some information about him."

	 

	Aykol, stating that he witnessed Oruç becoming a journalist and that he will tell the world about it, said: "We don't know what they will accuse him of yet. But questions like what were you doing at the border are absurd. A journalist can get across borders illegally if they need to do. We can always answer the questions about where we were and what were we doing. I have been to Beka, to Qandil and wrote about it. Sure, I was prosecuted. I was acquitted from some of them or got sentenced. It doesn't matter. A journalist can do these things. Aziz Oruç is a journalist. This is not just about Oruç, this is about scaring the journalists in Turkey from persuing the truth. He is a journalist and we will tell that he is a journalist to the whole world."

	 

	Aykol, stating that there are more than 160 journalists in prisons right now, said: "We have 20 reporters in prison right now. They are journalists. The government labels them as 'terrorists'. They were not caught with guns or carrying out an action. They do not prosecute us with accusations as 'he or she did that with this gun'. We have always been accused of the stories we wrote, the interviews we conducted. They know and accept that we are journalist in that sense but they prosecute us anyway. I have 63 cases against me in the last few years. I was jailed and then I was released. I'm temporarily out. These cases can be approved in the Supreme Court and I can go back to prison for 15, 20 years. Turkey is the second jailer of journalists according to the Committee to Protect Journalists' report. China is the first. China has a population of 200 million people while Turkey has 80 million. This is a black list for the people ruling Turkey and it is not something to be proud of."