A prosecutor who investigates terror crimes will oversee an investigation into the Hürriyet daily for a story it published about the military-government relationship last Saturday.
Hürriyet has attracted widespread criticism from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as well as Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım and other government figures for the report and has been accused of trying to create tension between the government and the military.
The report, which was written by Hürriyet’s Ankara Representative Hande Fırat, was titled “The [military] headquarters is restless,” which meant to say that the General Staff was disturbed about criticism suggesting that it was too close to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and found it without merit.
The Bakırköy Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office earlier this week launched an investigation into the Hürriyet daily over its report. The investigation was triggered by a criminal complaint from an academic at İstanbul University, Mehmet Hakan Sağlam.
Turkish media reports said on Friday that the Bakırköy Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office decided it lacked the jurisdiction to press ahead with the investigation into Hürriyet and sent the dossier to the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on the grounds that the subject of the investigation falls within terror crimes.
