Turkey detains editor over coup column

ANKARA: Turkish authorities detained the editor of a regional newspaper over a column she wrote criticising the government for exaggerating the importance of last year’s coup attempt, the newspaper said.

Yeliz Koray, editor of the Kocaeli Koz newspaper in the northwestern province of Izmit, was detained at her home late on Saturday, the newspaper said.

“Certain groups were bothered by the piece and made Koray a target. They wanted to lynch Koray for her writing, which is part of the right of freedom of expression,” the newspaper said on its website on Sunday.

In a column entitled “I’ll Eat Your Epic”, Koray criticised the government for what she said was an overemphasis on the events of July 15 last year, saying it paled in significance next to World War I and major battles in Turkish history.

She said the government had not done enough to expose what happened on the night, when rogue soldiers commandeered tanks and planes in an attempt to topple Erdogan. Some 250 people were killed, many of them unarmed civilians. No one was immediately available for comment at the paper or at the local prosecutor’s office. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists calls Turkey the world’s biggest jailer of journalists, with some 160 detained.