Erdem Gül

An Istanbul court has sentenced journalist and mayor of Istanbul's Adalar district Erdem Gül to five years in prison in his retrial for aiding the FETÖ terrorist organization over a piece of news involving images of trucks related to Turkish intel.

Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun has called for the extradition of Can Dündar, the exiled former editor-in-chief of the Cumhuriyet daily who has been sentenced to more than 27 years in jail on espionage and terror charges for one of the paper's stories.

A Turkish court on Dec. 23 sentenced Can Dündar to 27 years and six months in prison for aiding the terror group FETÖ by publishing state secrets, although not being a part of the hierarchical structure of the organization.

Under the indictment submitted to Istanbul's High Criminal Court no:14 on Oct. 14, Dündar could get anywhere from about 22 to 35 years behind bars.

Istanbul's Adalar (Princes' Islands) residents and public institutions, which came together to fight the picking of mimosa flowers without permission and damaging the trees every year in the spring, have made new attempts to protect the flowers unique to the islands.

Animal rights activists were allowed to observe the barns in which some 1,100 horses are kept under quarantine in the Princes' Islands off Istanbul after 105 of them were killed due to glanders, an infectious disease that occurs primarily in horses and can be contracted by humans and other animals.

Six former staffers of the Cumhuriyet newspaper were returned to prison on April 26 after a court in February rejected appeals of their sentences.

Turkish journalist Erdem Gül has been acquitted of charges of "publishing state secrets," his newspaper Cumhuriyet reported on July 16.

An administrator of the Turkish military university, established by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to help clean up the armed forces after a 2016 failed coup, has been arrested over alleged links to the putsch, the Cumhuriyet newspaper said on May 29.

An Istanbul court on April 2 issued an arrest warrant and a red notice for exiled former daily Cumhuriyet editor-in-chief Can Dündar in a case involving the much-publicized National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks that allegedly carried weapons to Syria in 2014. 

The prosecutor in the case of National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks bound for Syria on Dec. 20 demanded up to 15 years in jail for main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Enis Berberoğlu and journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül.