A claim has been filed against nine representatives of the Turkey’s oppositional Özgür Gündem news website, writes ermenihaber.am.

The Turkish pro-government Sabah newspaper reports that Istanbul’s prosecutor’s office has submitted an indictment, according to which the website’s editor-in-chief Bilir Kaya, directors Kemal Sanjili and Inal Kizilkaya, former editor Eren Keskin, members of the board of directors Asli Erdogan, Bilge Jontepe, Filiz Kocali, Necmiye Alpa and Ragip Zarakolu are charged with “joining an armed terrorist organization, “disturbing the unity and integrity of the state”, “joining an organization aimed at committing an offense” and “advocating a terrorist organization”.

Let us also mention that in 2011, Turkish publisher and human rights activist Ragip Zarakolu was awarded with the Hakob Meghapart Medal by the National Library of Armenia as a great publisher who has also dedicated dozens of books to the National Library.

The indictment also states that Özgür Gündem was the newspaper of the Kurdish Labor Party (PKK) that presented the articles and viewpoints of the leaders of the PKK and the Union of Kurdish Communities (KCK).

According to the indictment, the articles devoted to member of the KCK executive board Mustafa Karasu (with the pseudonym Huseyin Ali), Muzaffer Ayata (one of the founders of the PKK) and co-chair of the KCK executive board Bese Hozat would be posted on the website.

The indictment also states the following: “Özgür Gündem has been the mouthpiece of a terrorist organization, has published the statements by the high-ranking leaders of the organization, has made the campaign favoring the terrorist organization and its leaders accessible to the masses of the organization’s supporters, has published groundless news forming public opinion that is against Turkey, has presented the actions of the PKK as legitimate actions and has pushed the people to show hatred and rebel”.