Turkey has detained the chairman of the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, which has been the target of an intensifying crackdown since July’s failed coup. Akın Atalay was taken into custody at Istanbul’s airport after arriving from Germany, said Cumhuriyet, which also saw nine of its staff arrested last week. The paper has in recent years taken a strong line against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development party (AKP). Nine MPs from the opposition pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic party (HDP), including its co-leaders Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, were detained last week pending a trial on terror charges expected to begin on Friday. Among the nine to be held ahead of trial were Cumhuriyet’s editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu, celebrated cartoonist Musa Kart and influential anti-Erdoğan columnist Kadri Gürsel.

Source: The Guardian November 11, 2016 10:44 UTC