Turkish newspaper's cook arrested for allegedly insulting Erdogan

Press TV

Mon Dec 26, 2016 7:26PM

This photo taken on October 31, 2016 shows a security agent standing guard in front of the headquarters of Cumhuriyet newspaper in Istanbul. (Photo by AFP)

A cook working for a Turkish opposition newspaper has been remanded in custody after he allegedly insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet said on Monday that the head of its canteen, Senol Buran, had been taken into custody after he allegedly said he would not make tea for the country's leader.
According to the Turkish daily, the incident occurred when the cook was on his way to work to the newspaper's headquarters in central Istanbul but found roads closed as Erdogan was due to deliver a speech in the area.
"I would not serve that man a cup of tea," Buran was accused of angrily telling police officers.
Murat Sabuncu, the editor-in-chief of the opposition daily, was arrested along with several other staff in late October.
They are still under investigation for alleged links to US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed for a failed mid-July military coup against the Ankara government.

File photo shows Cumhuriyet newspaper's editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu.

The crackdown on Cumhuriyet came after Ankara ordered the closure of several opposition media outlets, including the Dicle Haber Ajansi news agency and Ozgur Gundem newspaper.
Since the coup attempt, Ankara has been carrying out a crackdown on those believed to have played a role in the abortive putsch.
The post-coup crackdown has seen some 36,000 people jailed pending trial and more than 100,000 sacked or suspended in the civil service, army, judiciary and other institutions.
Several thousand companies and institutions were also closed by the government on suspicion of providing financial support to Gulen’s movement.
Turkey is under fire by opposition parties and human rights groups, who say Ankara uses the state of emergency, which was first imposed a few days after the putsch bid and was renewed for another three months in October, to clamp down on all dissenting voices.

Read more" http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/12/26/503608/Turkey-Cumhuriyet-cook-Erdogan-Senol-Buran