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Well-known Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, whose Editor in Chief Can Dündar was arrested on 26 November on the charges of spying (for exposing the transfer of arms from Turkey to Syria ), was one of the few newspapers in Turkey which wrote on the topic of the Armenian Genocide without censorship.  

This is what Can Dündar himself said during the meeting with a group of journalists (organized by Hrant Dink Foundation) that took place shortly before Dündar was arrested.

To the question of Panorama.am’s reporter as to whether in Cumhuriyet they use the term Armenian Genocide while covering this topic, Can Dündar answered,

“There is no censorship in this newspaper – this applies also to the topic of genocide: everyone can write what they think... there are journalists in our newspaper who acknowledge the Armenian Genocide and there are those who don’t. Some write it in quotation marks, others write it without quotation marks – it’s completely up to them”. “So far we haven’t been sued for this”, - he added. 

On April 24 (when Can Dündar had just taken up the position of the Chief Editor) the front page of Cumhuriyet was dedicated to 1915 with a photo of the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan and words “Never Again” written in Armenian letters. When asked to comment about this Mr. Dündar said they wanted to show that as a newspaper they shared the “common pain” with their people and that they wanted the Turks to remember at least one word in Armenian regarding this. He also said that he himself had taken the picture of the memorial during his visit to Armenia together with the famous Armenian journalist Hrant Dink who was later assassinated in Turkey.

“Denial is the problem of mankind as such. It is important that all of us face the history”, - he said. Note however that in his speech he used the term “common pain” rather than the term Genocide.
Being personally in favour of a people-to-people dialogue between Armenia and Turkey, Mr. Dündar at the same time said that the Turkish politicians have no wish to take up any steps towards establishing relations with Armenia and that nothing should be expected from them in this regard. 

Let us remind the reader that Cumhuriyet’s Chief Editor Can Dündar and the newspaper’s Ankara representative Erdem Gul were arrested on charges of espionage and supporting a terrorist organization. These accusations, brought forth by Turkey’s President Erdogan, were based on reports in Cumhuriyet regarding trucks sent to Syria by the National Intelligence Agency of Turkey (MİT). The footage  released by Cumhuriyet on May 29 showed police officers opening the trucks which contained what the newspaper described as weapons and ammunition sent to Syria by the MİT. Erdogan has called for sentencing the journalists to the highest form of punishment - life imprisonment.

The arrest has been harshly criticised and has raised concerns on freedom of speech and freedom of press in Turkey.