#Turkey - Journalist Ahmet Hakan, hate target of President Erdoğan’s henchman, brutally attacked

Hürriyet daily columnist Ahmet Hakan, who has long faced politically motivated threats, has been hospitalized after being assaulted outside his home by assailants in the latest sign of deteriorating conditions for the media under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Four men in a black car followed Hakan home in the early hours of Thursday after he finished work on his program "Tarafsız Bölge" (The Neutral Zone) on private broadcaster CNN Türk, before assaulting him near his residence in İstanbul's Nişantaşı neighborhood.

One of the assailants targeted Hakan's bodyguard while the rest attacked Hakan at 12:35 a.m., as he was about to enter his home. Hakan is suffering from multiple fractures to his nose and ribs.

Police detained the four assailants soon after the violent incident.

"We see that it was an organized, planned attack," said Hürriyet Editor-in-Chief Sedat Ergin. The incident comes just weeks after prosecutors launched an investigation into the Doğan Media Group, which owns the paper, for alleged "terrorism propaganda."

Last month, pro-government mobs attacked Hürriyet's offices, accusing the newspaper of sympathizing with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Following yesterday's assault on Hakan, reactions poured in from many journalists, politicians and even representatives of several foreign missions in Turkey.

Emin Çapa, CNN Türk's senior economy editor, was among those quick to react to the attack on Hakan. Çapa shared a message on Twitter on Thursday, saying: "For those who are wondering about what happened, Ahmet Hakan … has sustained non-life threatening injuries. His treatment continues."

"The people who threatened Ahmet Hakan by saying, ‘You will beat them [Hakan] up, we know where you live,' already aimed to instigate and mobilize some people to take action to attack Hakan," Çapa added.

The board of directors of the Turkish Journalists' Association (TGC) released a written statement on Thursday lambasting the assault. "The TGC harshly condemns the assault on a member of the association, journalist Ahmet Hakan. The TGC calls for the Interior Ministry to take necessary legal action against those who previously intimidated and threatened Hakan with death. While the country is heading for a new election [scheduled for Nov. 1], President [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan], the ruling party [the Justice and Development Party (AK Party)] and some columnists who support the political authority are persistently targeting journalists, inciting verbal and physical attacks on journalists."

The statement continued: "Even though interim Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu thinks we have freedom of the press in Turkey, each day a media organ is being raided and journalists are being attacked. We condemn this ugly attack on Hakan. The TGC calls for the Interior Ministry, which by remaining silent in the face of threats to Hakan has failed to fulfill its duty, to take the required steps concerning the attack and announce the identities of the assailants."

TGC President Turgay Olcayto wrote on Twitter on Thursday: "The state avoids protecting journalists. As the election is approaching, they [Erdoğan and the government] are getting ill tempered.”

In addition, some members of the Freedom for Journalists Platform made a joint statement in front of the İstanbul Courthouse on Thursday, as Olcayto said on the platform's behalf: "Words of condemnation are insufficient in this incident. It was obvious that death threats targeting Hakan would have led to such a conclusion."

Dündar: We talk, AK Party attacks

Cumhuriyet Editor-in-Chief Can Dündar joined the chorus of criticism over the attack. The veteran journalist also lambasted those political figures who have expressed their outrage against Hakan over his columns in which he often mentioned Erdoğan-led pressure on the media and the government's alleged malpractices, including claims of massive corruption within the AK Party.

Posting a tweet on Thursday morning regarding the brutal assault on Hakan, Dündar blasted alleged government mouthpiece Star daily columnist Cem Küçük, who previously issued death threats to Hakan over his critical comments of Erdoğan and the government. "Cem Küçük, who wrote on Twitter: 'You think you still live in the era when Turkey was ruled by the Hürriyet daily. If we [pro-government members of the media] want to, we can smash you like a fly,' is the primary suspect in the attack on Hakan."

Dündar added on Twitter, "We [journalists] talk, the AKP [AK Party] attacks."

Dündar has also previously faced similar threats from Erdoğan and AK Party circles for publishing the video footage of an alleged illegal transfer of weapons through the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) to the radical terrorist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which mainly operates in Syria and Iraq.

TV presenter and journalist Cüneyt Özdemir also took to Twitter on Thursday. “We [journalists] are frightened, the way a dove might be,” he wrote, in a clear reference to the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007, after he compared himself to a dove over regular emails and telephones threatening his life.

In another tweet, Özdemir wrote: "I have one thing to say to those who assume they will manage to frighten journalists by attacking, intimidating and killing them in this day: We are ‘NOT AFRAID OF YOU.' The attack on Hakan foreshadows [that we are] entering a dark period. Get well soon dear @ahmethc."

Council of Europe Secretary-General Thorbjorn Jagland released a written statement condemning the assault on Thursday.

"I strongly condemn the brutal attack last night on Hürriyet journalist Ahmet Hakan, who has been subject to threats for some time. The repeated attacks on journalists in Turkey have a chilling effect on freedom of expression in the country. I call on the Turkish authorities to fully investigate this attack and bring the perpetrators to justice. Member states of the Council of Europe have an obligation under the European Convention on Human Rights to protect journalists against attacks and to prevent [the] impunity of instigators," he said in the statement.

The Turkish Journalists Union (TGS) criticized the attack and wished Hakan a speedy recovery. TGS President Uğur Güç tweeted on Thursday: "Freedom of the press is an assurance for a country ruled in line with democracy. We demand peace."

The TGS also held a protest in front of the İstanbul Governor's Office yesterday in a show of solidarity with Hakan.

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Mahmut Tanal was also among those condemning the attack. "Hürriyet is not a product being sold in a shopping center or a bazaar. Those afraid of the people's right to information and thus know about the truth are responsible for the assault on Hakan," he wrote on his Twitter account on Thursday.

Tanal added: "Those, who favor peace and freedoms win in the end, not these despots.”

Turkish actress and comedian Gülse Birsel, in a message shared on Twitter on Thursday, said: "I wish a speedy recovery to Ahmet Hakan, who was attacked by four people in front of his house and suffered multiple fractures."

The Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) said in a written statement on Thursday that a new level has been reached in terms of threatening, insulting and targeting journalists, adding, "The judiciary and police remaining inactive over such threats intensify our concerns about freedom of the press."

The Doğan Media Group and its parent company Doğan Holding are no strangers to Erdoğan's ire. In May, the group was suspended from participating in state tenders after Erdoğan accused its head, Aydın Doğan, of being a "coup lover" and described its media columnists as "charlatans."

Tensions escalated after the ruling AK Party co-founded and implicitly supported by Erdoğan lost its parliamentary majority in the June 7 general election, which led to failed coalition talks that prompted a snap election, scheduled for Nov. 1.

Hakan's assailants reportedly ex-convicts, AK Party members

The four people who allegedly attacked Hakan and remain in custody were reportedly identified as Ahmet Güler, Kamuran Ergin, Fuat Elmas and Uğur Adıyaman, and two of which were revealed to be ex-convicts, the Cumhuriyet daily said on Thursday.

The four suspects underwent a medical examination at Şişli Hamidiye Training and Research Hospital before being sent to the İstanbul Police Department's Public Security Branch Office in Gayrettepe on Thursday.

In its news report, Cumhuriyet said two of the suspects had a criminal record for using drugs, causing injury and making threats.

Broadcaster Kanal D also reported on Thursday that Adıyaman and Elmas are members of the AK Party’s Fatih local branch. 

In their initial statements to the police, the suspects reportedly said they and Hakan had a quarrel while driving and a scuffle occurred. The police confiscated the suspects' electronic devices, hoping it would help them find instigators of the crime, if any.

It was also reported that Hakan's request to the İstanbul Police Department for a bodyguard following threats made against him a fortnight ago fell on deaf ears.

Media mogul Doğan sends second open letter to Erdoğan

Separately, Doğan, the owner of the Doğan Media Group, addressed a second open letter to Erdoğan on Thursday, rejecting accusations of "promoting terrorism."

The media group has been under state scrutiny for months for allegedly refusing to bow to the interim AK Party government by continuing to cover the intense clashes between Turkish security forces and the PKK.

In his first open letter in late September, Doğan responded to accusations by Erdoğan that he was supporting terrorism and meddled in politics. In the letter, published in the Hürriyet daily, Doğan rejected Erdoğan's claims that he had told the then-prime minister during a meeting at an İstanbul hotel several years ago that his media group had "made governments come and go."

In response to Doğan's letter, Erdoğan said during a meeting with mukhtars on Tuesday that the letter does not count for anything for him and moreover accused Doğan of "robbing the whole country."

Doğan followed up with similar remarks in his second open letter to the president. "Since the president of the Turkish Republic, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in his speech to mukhtars the day before yesterday, directly targeted me again, it has become necessary to make a final explanation to the Turkish public about it,” he stated. “What I wrote to the president last Saturday was a response to preserve my dignity. There, I articulated that I never said the words he [Erdoğan] attributed to me, claiming that 'We topple governments and form new ones.' I stand by my former comments and repeat: I have never said this to anyone, the president of the republic included. I have never suggested anything that may carry such a meaning. But the president continued to accuse me the day before yesterday."

The Hürriyet daily was recently attacked twice by an angry mob headed by Boynukalın, who also threatened to attack Hakan.

Internet trolls known as "AK trolls," for their alleged association with the AK Party, have also conducted a long-running smear campaign against Hakan for the anti-government views written in his columns.