Sik was arrested in March of 2011 and falsely accused of being a member of the secret group Ergenekon, Turkey's version of America's deep state. The manuscript for his book, "The Imam's Army," about the Gülen movement's penetration into the Turkish state, was confiscated by Turkish authorities.
He was released from prison in March 2012 due to international pressure.
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Below:
- An excerpt from Sik's Wikipedia page.
- An excerpt from an article by German magazine Der Spiegel about the Gülen movement.
- A video of Sik speaking in the European parliament about his imprisonment, his work, and the nature of Turkey's politics and society.
Wikipedia:
"Ahmet Şık (b. 1970, Adana) is a Turkish investigative journalist, author of several books and a trade unionist.Der Spiegel - "The Shadowy World of the Islamic Gülen Movement":
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On 3 March 2011 eleven people were detained in Istanbul and Ankara, including the journalists Ahmet Şık and Nedim Şener. On 6 March they and another seven people were arrested on the allegation they were members of the secret organization Ergenekon.[2][3][4] On or around 23 March Istanbul Heavy Penal Court 12 ordered the confiscation of a draft for a book that Ahmet Şık wanted to publish under the title of "The Army of the Imam". On 1 April 2011 unknown people made the book available on the Internet.[5][6]
The printing house, İthaki, was the publisher that owned the rights to "İmamın Ordusu" (The Army of the Imam).[7] The unpublished book deals with the alleged organization founded within the Turkish police by the Fethullah Gülen religious community. This fact has led to suspicions that Şık was arrested due to the book's contents, rather than his involvement in the alleged Ergenekon gang, which he has worked as a journalist to expose."
"Istanbul-based journalist Ahmet Sik suffered a similar fate. He was arrested in March 2011, shortly before his book about the Gülen movement, "Imamin Ordusu," ("The Imam's Army"), was to be published. Security forces searched the offices of his publishing house, and the manuscript, in which Sik describes how the Gülen movement has allegedly infiltrated the police and the judiciary in Turkey, was confiscated. The investigative reporter was charged with being a member of Ergenekon. Ironically, it was Sik who, together with a colleague, had exposed the secret coup plans of an Ergenekon admiral in the weekly magazine Nokta in 2007 and who had repeatedly targeted the Ergenekon network. Sik was released a few months ago, following international protests."Open discussion with ALDE group - Freed Turkish journalist Ahmet Sik in Brussels [FULL VIDEO] [EN]
