ELVAN ALPAY’S heart leapt at the news. It was January 11th, and Turkey’s constitutional court had just ordered the release of Mrs Alpay’s father Sahin, as well as another writer, from pre-trial detention. One of over 100 journalists locked up in Turkey, Mr Alpay had been arrested on farcical terrorism charges in the summer of 2016, a couple of weeks after a violent, unsuccessful coup. He is 73 years old and faces a triple life sentence.
Accompanied by her mother and a few friends, Mrs Alpay drove to the prison where her father had been held, to greet him in person. She never got the chance. As she waited by the prison gates, word came that a lower court had rejected the high court’s verdict, and Mr Alpay would remain behind bars. The move had no legal precedent, or indeed basis. What it did have was the endorsement of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government. Without a trace of irony, the deputy prime minister accused the constitutional court of flouting the...Continue reading
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