The magazine Nokta was exposed to an intense repression and its office was raided after publishing the diaries about the plans of a military coup by the fascist generals. Now it has been closed.
The magazine Nokta, on its edition dated 29 March, had published the diaries of retired Vice Admiral Ozden Ornek, ex-Commander of the Marine Forces. Thus, it has brought to the open that the generals had made two different plans for a military coup in 2004under the names "Ayisigi" and Sarikiz".
After this news, a legal proceeding was started against the magazine. Putschist general Ornek gave his charge against the magazine for having published his diaries. Chief of the General Staff, fascist general Buyukanit, presented the magazine as a target in one of his speeches.
On 13 April, the office of the magazine in Istanbul was raided by the police forces from the Anti-terror Department under the command of the Military Public Prosecutor's office of Ankara. During the raid, all the documents on the computers of the magazine were copied by the police one by one and the workers of the magazine were not allowed to go out.
After the raid, journalists and democratic organisations made a protest action in front of the office of the magazine under the slogan "The magazine Nokta is not alone!" They expressed that the raid was the violation of the "right of secrecy of the news resource" and they sold the magazine at the streets for solidarity.
Finally, the owners of the magazine, who were not able to stand against the intense repression after the news about a military coup, have decided to close the magazine.
Alper Gormus, Chief Editor of the magazine, made a press meeting on 21 April about the closing. He said that the decision was taken by the bosses. He expressed that they, as the workers of the magazine, want to continue with publishing the magazine on the same line but he added that they do not have the capital for this. On the other hand, Hasim Akman, director of the magazine, has told that there has not been taken a decision of closing the magazine yet, but they have stopped publishing it until the bosses take a clear decision. Akman informed that the bosses have presented economical pretexts but he added that this is not the truth. He expressed that the real reason is the repression.
Besides, the Public Prosecutor's office of Bakirkoy opened a case against Alper Gormus, Chief Editor of the magazine, because of the mentioned news with the title "Diaries of a Coup". The allegation is "insult" and "slander". A sentence of 6 years and 8 months is demanded by the Public Prosecutor's office.