ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Turkish court has charged a Rudaw reporter with allegedly “propagating for a terrorist organization” after detaining him last week while covering the migrant crisis unfolding near Turkey’s border with Greece and Bulgaria.
Rawin Sterk and his cameraman, Mehmet Sirin Akgun, as well as Mesopotamian News Agency (Mezopotamya Ajansi) correspondents Idris Sayilgan and Naci Kaya were detained on Saturday in Edirne province on the grounds of “filming in a military field.”
Akgun was released after four days of detention but Sterk’s detention was extended, and he was moved from Edirne to Ankara.
Sterk attended a hearing on Friday in Ankara where he was officially charged with “propagating for a terrorist organization,” referring to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) - an armed Kurdish group which struggles for Kurdish cultural and political rights in Turkey. Ankara and its NATO allies consider the PKK as a terrorist organization.
The court used recent social media posts on the ongoing clashes between Turkish forces and Syrian regime forces in Idlib as evidence in the Friday hearing.
“The number of the missing [Turkish] soldiers in Idlib is 21 so far,” read one tweet shown in court.
In his defense, Sterk said that his tweet about Idlib relied on an international news outlet, defying the claims he engaged in propaganda.
His lawyer has seven days to appeal the decision. If the court decides to accept the appeal, Sterk will be released but his trial will continue until his second hearing next month when the court will either acquit him or continue his trial.
On February 28, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lifted the border restrictions he had agreed with European powers in 2016. Hundreds of migrants and refugees from across the Middle East and Central Asia have made a break for Turkey’s borders with Europe in recent days.
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