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Ten months in prison have provided Ahmet Altan with plenty of time to pore over the evidence meant to link him and his brother Mehmet to a plot aiming to overthrow the Turkish government.

His work as a journalist aside, he eventually concluded, the states proof rested on a single assertion.

We are said to know the men who are alleged to know the men who are alleged to have directed the coup, he told the judge as his trial began last week. I believe this summary sounds ridiculous even to you.

The Altan brothers, a pair of prominent columnists who have been held in pretrial detention since their arrest in September, are among the 150 journalists and writers jailed in Turkey following a failed coup attempt last summer.

Together with Nazli Ilicak, a veteran journalist and commentator, the brothers are accused of complicity in the coup and acting on behalf of a terrorist organization charges they deny. They each face three aggravated life sentences plus another 15 years in prison.

Ahead of last weeks trial, the press freedom advocacy group Article 19 criticized the charges as politically motivated.

State prosecutors, on the other hand, claim the brothers were sending subliminal messages in a television show hosted by Ilicak, which aired the day before the attempted coup. On the program, the journalists had criticized President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Mehmet Altan had commented on Turkeys long history of military coups.

We are said to know the men who are alleged to know the men who are alleged to have directed the coup. journalist Ahmet Altan

This, prosecutors say, is proof that they knew of the plot that would unfold the following night, during which a faction of the military took over bridges and airports, bombed parliament and killed more than 240 people.

After the coup, the state arrested thousands of civil servants and fired many more, arguing they had links to the coups supposed mastermind, the Pennsylvania-based imam Fethullah Glen. Soon, however, the purge spread to include academics, writers, journalists, politicians and critics of any affiliation.

Rights groups have urged Turkey to release all journalists to little avail. Erdogan and his ministers have repeatedly claimed that there are no journalists in prison at least not for their reporting.

Only two of the 177 people in prison who declared their profession to be journalism have yellow press cards, Erdogan said earlier this month, referring to the government-issued press accreditation, which critical and Kurdish journalists are often denied.

One of these 177 is in prison for murder, while the rest are there because of their ties to terrorist organizations, he said.

Turkey has a long history of putting journalism on trial, imprisoning reporters under successive military regimes as well as under Erdogans AKP government. In the past decade, Erdogan himself has sued thousands of critics for insulting him, among them many journalists.

The precise number of journalists currently in Turkish prisons varies: Most press freedom groups say that at least 150 editors, reporters and columnists are behind bars, while some put the number above 200.

Either estimate crowns Turkey the worlds leading jailer of journalists. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Turkey accounted for a third of all journalists imprisoned worldwide in 2016.

Most of those journalists were arrested after the coup attempt, and are awaiting trial. Few have made an appearance before the court. Many have yet to learn the exact charges against them. As of June, no journalist charged with links to the coup plotters has been convicted of a crime.

Many more editors and reporters have found themselves unemployed. An estimated 2,500 media workers lost their jobs since the attempted coup as more than 160 media outlets were shuttered by decree.

Besides media conglomerates linked to Glen, Kurdish outlets have also been hit hard. They, at least, are used to crackdowns: In the past, Kurdish journalists in particular often ended up on trial for terror propaganda if seen to write or speak sympathetically about the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought the Turkish state for decades.

But since the failed coup, virtually every journalist arrested has been accused of terror-related crimes, as the government has declared Glens opaque movement a terrorist organization meaning that anyone accused of even the slightest links to the group or the coup attempt will face terror charges.

The evidence against them is often paper-thin, or based on their work for media organizations associated with Glens movement. The indictments against many journalists, including the Altan brothers and Nazli Ilicak, include their professional contacts and correspondence with suspected Glen supporters as proof of their guilt.

All my relationships with the people that you mention were within the framework of my job as a journalist, Ilicak said in her defense statement last Monday, her voice rising in anger. At the time she spoke with them, she added, they were not yet declared members of a terrorist organization.

Only two of the 177 people in prison who declared their profession to be journalism have yellow press cards.One of these 177 is in prison for murder, while the rest are there because of their ties to terrorist organizations." Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

The courtrooms public gallery was crowded with press freedom advocates, journalists and relatives last week. Together with the Altan brothers and Ilicak, more than a dozen other journalists were on trial, albeit on slightly different charges. The majority were fugitives, tried in absentia.

Few observers thought they would be granted a fair trial. Turkeys courts, weakened by the sacking of some 4,000 judges and prosecutors, have gradually lost their independence.

Judges who rule in favor of defendants charged with links to the coup attempt risk losing their jobs. Earlier this year, a court ordered the release of several journalists a decision that was swiftly reversed, followed by the suspension of the judges involved.

Observers were therefore not surprised when, on Friday evening, the court decided to keep Ilicak and the Altan brothers in pretrial detention until their trial resumes in September.

The judge made no other comment before adjourning, but his decision to keep the journalists in jail signaled that he sided with the prosecutor ruling that bail could not be granted given the existence of a flight risk and strong suspicion of a crime having been committed.

Zia Weise reported from Istanbul.

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Turkey jails more journalists than any other nation. Those in detention are all terrorists, Erdogan says. - PRI

The Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) has seized control of at least 50 Syriac churches, monasteries, and cemeteries in Mardin province, report media sources from Turkey:

The Turkish-Armenian daily Agos reports:

In 2016, the Transfer, Liquidation and Redistribution Committee of Mardin Governorate transferred to primarily the Treasury as well as other relevant public institutions numerous churches, monasteries, cemeteries and other assets of the Syriac community in the districts of Mardin.

The Mor Gabriel Monastery Foundation appealed to the decision yet the liquidation committee rejected their appeal last May. The churches, monasteries and cemeteries whose ownerships were given to the Treasury were then transferred to the Diyanet.

Inquiries of the Mor Gabriel Monastery Foundation revealed that dozens of churches and monasteries had been transferred to the Treasury first and then allocated to the Diyanet. And the cemeteries have been transferred to the Metropolitan Municipality of Mardin. The maintenance of some of the churches and monasteries are currently being provided by the Mor Gabriel Monastery Foundation and they are opened to worship on certain days. Similarly, the cemeteries are still actively used by the Syriac community who visits them and performs burial procedures. The Syriacs have appealed to the Court for the cancellation of the decision.

"We started to file lawsuits and in the meantime our enquiries continued" said Kuryakos Ergn, the Chairman of Mor Gabriel Monastery Foundation. Ergn said they would appeal to the court for the cancellation of nearly 30 title deed registries.

Included in the seizure is the 1600-year-old Mor Gabriel Monastery:

In the petition filed to the court it has been noted that the properties subject to the court case had been, since ancient times, under the possession and ownership of the Foundation and the significance of Mor Gabriel Monastery has been underlined; "Its history dates back to the 4th century AD. The Monastery is one of the oldest monasteries in the world which is still active and is one of the most ancient religious centers of Syriacs and the entire world with its history of more than 1600 years.

Midyat Syriac Deyrulumur Mor Gabriel Monastery Foundation had been established on the basis of the imperial order of Sultan Abdlmecid Han during the Ottoman Empire in 1267 Islamic calendar (1851/1852 Gregorian calendar) and its status was redefined, became a legal entity, on the basis of the Foundations Law of 13.06.1935 with no 2762.

The Foundation had been recognised as "a religious community foundation" on the basis of a Regulation issued in 2002 by the Directorate General of Foundation and was included in the List of Religious Community Foundations drafted same year. Foundations that I'm not included in this list are in not recognised as religious community foundations."

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Erdogan Seizes 50 Syriac Churches and Monasteries, Declares Them Turkish State Property - PJ Media

On a sweltering afternoon in Istanbul last summer, loud noises woke the Turkish novelist Asl Erdoan from a nap. Open, police! Open, or we will break the door, a voice called. When Erdoan, an award-winning writer, unlocked her door, the cold muzzle of an automatic rifle was placed against her chest. Soldiers in black masks and bulletproof vests barged in, shouting Clean! as they moved through each room. Erdogan, who is fifty years old, was alone in her apartment. The men, Turkish special forces soldiers, left after the arrival of dozens of members of the Turkish counterterrorism forces. As Erdoan watched, men scoured every corner of her apartment. Erdoan, who is not related to the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoan, was informed that she was going to be charged with supporting terrorism. The basis for the criminal case, she was told, was her five years of writing articles and serving on the advisory board of a daily newspaper, zgr Gndem , which the Turkish government said was linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, and which was shut down in 2016 but later remerged under a different name. After spending seven hours searching through the thirty-five hundred books in Erdoans home library, the officers took six books on Kurdish history with them as evidence.

Later, the judge asked me about those books, Erdoan recalled in an interview earlier this month, in Istanbul. Is it a crime to read about Kurds in this country? Arent they a part of this nation? Not to read about them should be a crime, she said, as she calmly smoked a cigarette.

When Erdoan was arraigned before a judge and told the charges she faced, she fainted. She was charged under Article 302 of the Turkish penal code: disrupting the unity and integrity of the state. She was held in solitary confinement for the next five daysthe first two of which she was deprived of waterand then jailed with other female prisoners. On Erdoans hundred and thirty-third day in prison, she was given her first opportunity to defend herself in court. Looking thin and tired, she delivered a statement to the judge hearing her case: I will read my testimony as if there is still rule of law in this country, she declared. The courtroom microphone was off, though, and the journalists present could barely hear her. Later that night, Erdoan was released from the Bakrky state prison, in Istanbul, to a cheering crowd of family and friends. She is out of prison but barred from travelling outside the country, and her trial resumed last week. It was her fourth court appearance since December. She faces a life sentence if convicted.

In a separate trial that began last week, seventeen journalists stand accused of serving as the media arm of the failed July, 2016, coup . They include Ahmet Altan, age sixty-seven, a prominent novelist and journalist; and his younger brother, Mehmet Altan, sixty-four, a distinguished academic and the author of forty books. Prosecutors initially accused the Altans of sending subliminal messages to the plotters of the failed coup. It was the first time in my career that I heard this term, their lawyer, Veysel Ok, told me, smiling. It was probably so for the prosecutor who wrote the indictment as well.

All told, the brothers have spent nearly three hundred days in jail awaiting trial. Based on the charges currently filed against them, the brothers each face three life sentences if convicted. They stand accused of attempting to overthrow the Turkish Grand National Assembly, attempting to overthrow the Government of Turkey, attempting to abolish the constitutional order, and committing crimes on behalf of an armed terrorist organization without being a member. Prosecutors are using phone records, and articles the Altans wrote about various topics, among other things, as evidence against them. The oldest article dates back to 2012, four years before last summers failed coup. After five consecutive days of hearings, the judge ruled last Friday to continue the pretrial detention of all defendants. The trial is adjourned until September 19th.

Writing in Turkeychronicling current events in particularhas always been a dangerous undertaking. But the crackdown carried out by the Turkish government since the failed coup is the largest one in decades. There are an estimated hundred and sixty-five journalists, writers, and other members of the media behind bars in Turkey today. The government has shuttered close to a hundred and seventy-nine newspapers, magazines, radio stations, and TV channels. Turkey ranks a hundred and fifty-fifth, out of a hundred and eighty nations, in the 2017 World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders. Government officials can call a media ban at any time, severely crippling peoples access to information. Access to Wikipedia is currently blocked nationwide. Access to Twitter and YouTube has been blocked in the past.

Cumhuriyet , one of Turkeys oldest newspapers, and one of its few remaining opposition-news outlets, is also under assault. In a separate trial, set to begin July 24th, nineteen staff membersmost of whom have been held in pretrial detention since Octoberwill stand trial, accused of links to terrorist organizations.

Eugene Schoulgin, a seventy-six-year-old Norwegian novelist and the vice-president of PEN International, has observed the trials of journalists, human-rights activists, and writers in Turkey over the last twenty-five years, and said that his meetings with government officials and civil-society groups during his most recent trip, in February, left him bereft. There was a time when I had found a glimpse of light. Turkey was a country which I imagined was going, although slowly, in a democratic direction, Schoulgin said in an e-mail. What I saw was both the same as in many years yet at the same time something completely new. In the short run, I have nearly no hope for Turkey.

Other segments of Turkish society have been targeted as well. An estimated forty-seven thousand people have been arrested since the failed coup. At least a hundred and forty-five thousand people working in various fieldseducation, law enforcement, civil-society institutionshave been fired or suspended from their jobs. Many Turks today live in a constant state of vigilance. Who might be targeted next?

The state of emergency that overrides certain judicial procedures and was declared after the coup as a temporary measure is still in effect. Last month, President Erdoan said that it would be lifted when the country achieved welfare and peace. Ok, the Altan brothers attorney, told me that new regulations on prison conditions have gone into effect as well. He said that lawyerswho previously had unlimited access to their clientsare now entitled to one video-monitored hour a week, with a guard standing by.

During the interview, Asl Erdoans hands were seldom still, either motioning while she spoke or cupping a pack of tobacco. At her trial this week, she demanded the right to travel abroad, which was granted. But it remains unclear whether the government will return her passport. In September, she is to receive the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize, in Germany; previous winners include the Belarusian investigative journalist Svetlana Alexievich and the Syrian poet Ali Ahmad Said Esber, who uses the pen name Adonis. With the travel ban, the humiliation lingers, Erdoan said. Her trial will continue on October 31st.

After her release from prison, Erdoan told me, she didnt return to her apartment for several months. Nightmares hindered her ability to write. In prison, she reread poems by Rainer Maria Rilke and Paul Celan, and from the prison library she borrowed Shoah, the text of Claude Lanzmanns documentary about survivors of the Holocaust, from 1985. Some of her own books were available at the prison library, too. Lately, her work has found new readers at home and abroad, and the Times profiled her this spring. Her book The Stone Building and Other Places will be published in the U.S. in November.

At the end of our interview, I asked Erdoan about her state of mind. I keep asking myself, What is this hatred that this country has toward its writers? she said. If a country has begun to be fearful of its writers, it means it has a serious problem with facing reality. Only heavily totalitarian regimes burden themselves with their writers. By cutting off the writer, the academic, the journalist of your countryyou actually cut off your own language. So, I ask: What is this hatred about? By hating me, you actually show the hate you have for yourself. Because I am you. Whether you like it or not. I am Turkey. Whether you accept it or not, we are the language and the conscience of this country.

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Turkey's Writers Face Yet More Trials - The New Yorker

Germanys Foreign Ministry has warned the bodyguards of Turkish President Recep Erdogan not to attend the upcoming G-20 summit in Hamburg, after last month they assaulted protesters in Washington, D.C.

In May, during Turkish President Recep Erdogans visit to the US capital for his first meeting with US President Donald Trump, his bodyguards managed to push past US police, and attack a group of Kurdish protesters in front of the residence of the Turkish Ambassador in Washington.

A video published by the Turkish-language service of the Voice of America (VOA) captured the skirmish in which a group of men in suits punch and kick protesters while the US police struggled to contain the outbreak of violence.

The incident led the city of Washington to condemned a brutal attack on peaceful protesters by Recep Erdogans bodyguards, and the US State Department expressed concern to Turkey in the strongest possible terms.

Following the incident, the US authoritiesannounced arrest warrants had been issued for 12 members of Erdogans security detail,includingnine security guards and three police officers.

Turkeys Foreign Ministry counterattacked by formally protesting with the US ambassador for the aggressive actions of US security personnel.

It also criticized the inability of US authorities to take sufficient precautions at every stage of the official program and demanded a full investigation of the incident.

Last year Erdogans bodyguards attacked reporters outside the Brookings Institution in a similar incident.

Germanys warning for Erdogans security personnel comes against the backdrop of a long-standing diplomatic conflict with Turkey fueled by a wide range of issues.

A handout photo made available by the Turkish President Press office on 25 June 2017 shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (2-L) waving to supporters after offering Eid al-Ramadan prayers at the Mimar Sinan Mosque, in Istanbul, Turkey, 25 June 2017. Photo: Turkish Presidency/EPA/REX/Shutterstock

Renowned for Clashes

The German Foreign Ministry warned Turkishbodyguards involved in violent scuffles in Washington last month not to attend the G-20 summit on July 7-8, German media reported, as cited by state-run media DW.

German officials are preparing for violence at the G-20 forum not just from protesters but also from the Turkish Presidents bodyguards which are renowned for clashing with activists, DW states.

Thewarnings were then repeated to members of the Bundestag, i.e. the German Parliament, in closed-door meetings, German newspaper Die Welt reported.

Germanys Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) said earlier that foreign powers did not hold sovereign powers, saying foreign colleagues only have the right to self-defense.

On our streets, only the Hamburg police have a say and no one else. This includes foreign security forces, Hamburg Senator Andy Grote told Die Welt.

The Turkish Embassy in Berlin sent the Foreign Ministry a list of 50 people who were to accompany Erdogan to Hamburg, local daily Hamburger Abendblatt reported.

The list reportedly included several agents who were involved in an incident inWashington last month.

Left-Wing & Kurdish Protests

More than 10,000 far-leftactivi are expected to descend on Hamburg for the G20 Summit being held on July 7 and July 8.

Hamburg is already a hotbed of left-wing activism and cars have been regularly torchedin the lead up to the summit, DW notes.

Adding to the possibility of potential violence is the large Kurdish presence in the city, many of whom support the banned Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). Several thousand well-organized Turkish right-wing extremists such as the Ulkucu (Gray Wolves) movement reportedly operate in Germany as well.

The Kurdish scene is highly hierarchical, and does not need a long lead time to mobilize, a senior security official told Hamburger Abendblatt.

Germanys domestic intelligence agency (BfV) told Die Welt that street battles between Kurds and nationalist Turks could easily erupt.

New Lows in German-Turkish Ties

Relations between Germany and Turkey keep sinking to new lows as Turkish President Recep Erdogan and the Turkish Cabinet continue to implement measures deemed in the West as undemocratic, and do not hesitate to use Nazi slurs against Germany and other Western European countries such as the Netherlands and Austria.

In June 2016, Turkey banned a German MP delegation from visiting the German troops in Incirlik in response to the German governments decision to recognize the killing of around 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1917as genocide, known as the Armenian Genocide.

Although the Armenian Genocide crisis died down in the following months, tensions between Germany and Turkey have remained high. They flared up again before Turkeys presidential republic referendum on April 16, which Erdogan and his party AKP won with a very narrow majority, with the Turkish opposition disputing the results, and international observers finding numerous violations.

Before the referendum, several German local authorities banned Erdogans government ministers from campaign among Turkish expats in Germany which caused outrage in Ankara and led the Turkish President to insult the Germans with references to Nazism.

A number of German lawmakers have also been outraged at what they see as flagrant repression of freedoms during Erdogans crackdown on civil servants and the media following the failed July 2016 coup attempted by the Turkish military.

Dozens of journalistshave been imprisoned in Turkey, including Turkish-German correspondent of a leading German newspaper, Deniz Yucel.

Turkey recently said it was going to stop teaching evolution in high schools, and will scale down the teaching of the legacy of secularism of its founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. In another development, Istanbuls gay pride march was prevented for a third year in a row.

German Chancellor Merkel has ruled out allowing Turks in Germany to vote in a potential Turkish referendum on reintroducing the death penalty. Turkeys bid to join the EU appears to have ground to a halt precisely because of Erdogans controversial policies and moves.

A German press recently report alleged crucial European members of NATO such as Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands as well as North American member Canada were working to block Turkey from hosting the 2018 NATO Summit.

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Germany Tells Erdogan to Keep Bodyguards Out of Hamburg G-20 Summit in Wake of Skirmish in Washington Report - Intelligencer Post

He did not collapse, said the reporter, Aziz Ozen, who works for Hurriyet, one of Turkeys leading newspapers. He just leaned to his left, and they got him right away.

A government official declined to provide any more details on the incident, instead offering a Turkish news report saying that the president had fainted.

According to Turkish protocol, if Mr. Erdogan had been incapacitated for a longer period of time, he would have been temporarily replaced by the speaker of the Turkish Parliament, Ismail Kahraman, a lawmaker from Mr. Erdogans party.

In metaphorical terms, however, Mr. Erdogans absence would leave a void. He has been the central figure in Turkish politics for a decade and a half, and he has succeeded in isolating most of his rivals, both within his party and outside it.

His son-in-law, Berat Albayrak, Turkeys energy minister, is often mentioned as a potential successor. But he lacks Mr. Erdogans personal appeal.

Mr. Erdogans health scare occurred at the end of the month of Ramadan, when Mr. Erdogan, a Muslim, had been fasting during daylight hours.

It follows a series of diplomatic crises involving Mr. Erdogans government. In recent weeks, Turkey has sided with Qatar in its spat with most of its neighbors, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which are angered by Qatari foreign policy.

In a show of solidarity, Mr. Erdogans government agreed to send more Turkish troops to join those already in Qatar. After Saudi Arabia criticized the move, Mr. Erdogan reacted angrily on Saturday, calling the Saudis disrespectful.

Mr. Erdogan is also angry with the United States. In Syria, the American government is working with Syrian Kurdish militias whom Turkey views as terrorists. In Washington, American officials have issued arrest warrants for a group of Mr. Erdogans bodyguards who were filmed assaulting protesters during Mr. Erdogans visit last month.

That furor has now threatened to add a new tension to Turkish-German relations. There have been reports in the German news media suggesting that the German government had told Turkey the bodyguards involved in the Washington incident would not be welcome in Hamburg for a Group of 20 summit meeting in early July.

Officials in Berlin declined on Monday to confirm the news reports. But Martin Schfer, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said that he could assume with a good conscience that these people who have been incriminated by American judicial authorities wont set foot on German soil in the foreseeable future, including during the G-20 summit.

Ralf Martin Meyer, the chief of police in Hamburg, told the German newspaper Bild on Monday that a clear message had been sent to Turkish officials that we will not accept something like this, he said, referring to the incident in Washington.

Some 15,000 police officers are expected to be deployed to secure the streets of Hamburg during the international summit meeting, the first in more than a decade to be held in a German city. Hamburg has a long tradition of extreme leftist groups and a lively anarchist scene that has been plotting for months to disrupt the arrival of the delegates.

Hamburg is also home to roughly 90,000 Turks and their descendants, many of them ethnic Kurds. That has prompted worries about possible clashes between Mr. Erdogans supporters and opponents, beyond the general disruption sought by leftist organizers.

Mr. Meyer said that German police officers would not hesitate to detain anyone involved in clashes, regardless of their motivation. We would move very swiftly and very clearly against this, the police chief said. Here on the streets of Hamburg, we alone have such authority.

Follow Patrick Kingsley @patrickkingsley and Melissa Eddy @meddynyt on Twitter.

Patrick Kingsley reported from Istanbul, and Melissa Eddy from Berlin.

A version of this article appears in print on June 27, 2017, on Page A5 of the New York edition with the headline: Erdogan Says Blood Sugar Caused Scare Over Health.

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President Erdogan of Turkey Recovers From Minor Health Scare - New York Times