Turkish police detain Ahval columnist Baysal for alleged terror links

Turkish police detained Nurcan Baysal, an award-winning Kurdish rights defender and Ahval columnist, on suspicion of being a member of a terrorist organisation.

Baysal told Ahval that she was being taken to a hospital by anti-terror police. Lawyers representing Baysal said prosecutors had provided them with no further details about the charges.

In 2018, Baysal was named Global Laureate for Human Rights Defenders at Risk by Front Line Defenders, an Irish human rights NGO. She also contributes to Turkish news website T24.

Turkish police have rounded up thousands of writers, journalists, academics and state employees over the past three years on charges of links to militant Kurdish groups and the Fethullah Gülen organisation, which Turkey blames for orchestrating a failed military coup in 2016. The arrest comes just days after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he wanted to revive Turkey’s floundering application for European Union membership.

Baysal was detained by Turkish police at her house in Diyarbakir, southeast Turkey in January 2018. Human Rights Watch said at the time that she was taken into custody in connection with her Tweets criticising Turkey’s military operation in Afrin, Syria.

Baysal is a founder of the Diyarbakır Institute for Political and Social Research (DISA).

Source: Ahval News