JOURNALIST OZGUDEN FACES THREATS IN BELGIUM

BÄ°
Dec 12 2008
Turkey

Belgian authorities are forced to put journalist Dogan Ozguden under
protection because of the violence and lynch threats he has found
himself facing due to the publications he made in his site against the
nationalist comments of Vecdi Gönul, the Minister of National Defense.

Belgium News Agency BELGA announced that Belgium authorities put
Dogan Ozguden, journalist and publishing director of Info-turk.be,
an independent internet site, under protection.

Ozguden had announced at his site Ä°nfo-turk.be National Defense
Minister Vecdi Gönul’s praise of the forced deportation of the
Greeks and Armenians right around the time the formation of the
Turkish national state in the 1920s.

The minister had stated his praise during a ceremony held at
the Turkish embassy at Brussels. According to the internet site,
in addition to Gönul’s speech, Ambassador Fuat Tanlay had read a
nationalist poem that had the Turkish flag through statements like
"I will dig the grave of one who does not look at you like I do,
I will destroy the nest of the bird that flied without saluting you."

"Ozguden’s file is at the Crisis Center Administration" Following the
critiques against the figures mentioned above, starting with Belturk,
many pro-government sites launched a campaign against Ä°nfo-Turk,
which eventually reached to the level of lynch announcements. Reacting
to the situation, Senator Josy Dubie questioned Patrick Deawael,
Minister of Interior, yesterday (December 11), asking him what they
were doing to protect Ozguden. Government’s answer was that they were
taking the necessary measures, but could not reveal them in order to
protect Ozguden.

On the other hand, claiming that he was facing violence and lynch
provocations, Ozguden went to the Royal Prosecutor’s Office to file
a complaint.

Belturk: We did not call the organization, we did not exert pressure
While sites like Belturk.be and gundem.be, which operate in Belgium,
have made news targeting Dogan Ozguden, one of these sites, belturk.be,
called the Journalists’ Association of Ankara and claimed that the
allegation did not reflect the reality, on the contrary, it was them
who were being targeted.

Newspaper "Yenicag" had pressured Turkish Journalists’ Association
Daily Yenicag attacked the Turkish Journalists Association (TGC)
for giving an award journalist Ozguden for his fiftieth year in
the profession.

The newspaper described giving an award to Ozguden against whom there
is a lawsuit for "denigrating the military" an "award scandal".

The newspaper used the expressions "There are more than 50 lawsuits
against him, he is running away from the law for 37 years" and "An
Armenian defender" for Ozguden, who had to leave Turkey in 1971 and
never returned again.

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