Media in Turkey: “More Journalists Will Be Laid Off”

(Article published originally on Bianet )

Pelin Batu, famous columnist, has been laid off from her post at Milliyet newspaper. Today, Batu wrote a farewell letter in "Revnak" - her column in the newspaper.

“Why a popular leader who can hardly keep 50 percent of his electors under control, is afraid of three or five journalists, columnists and reporters,”  she told Bianet.   

"I wrote to Milliyet because it was Abdi İpekçi's newspaper and first newspaper that was read in my home. However, Milliyet and many different newspapers laid off their journalists after the Gezi Resistance. There is an awful fear behind this situation."

"I'm not alone and it's not necessary to talk big. More journalists will be laid off from their works, especially during process of Turkey’s presidential elections. The physical law is clear. If you force from one side, this oppression will burst from other side. They already stressed out the society, this polarization is not good for anyone."

Will I keep quiet?!

With the column headline 'Hasta la Vista’, she wrote the following: "I won't strike an attitude such like a veteran of media, neither I'm first nor last also I'm not a hero. I'm just a witness to murdered children, grudge, hate, sectarianism, theft. My country is unclaimed case, will I keep quite? " 

She added the following:"During two years I tried to reflect all colors of the rainbow. I tried to write bravely in this paradise of democracy which everyone is sold like a stock unsightly and it deepen the separation of individuals in society. I sometimes praised the government but mostly I criticized them, not for opposition sake, supporting a team or preferring B party instead of A. I wrote because I value neutrality, I believe ethic and justice, I captivate from different colors' beauty. Naively, I also thought that: One central authority need to sycophantic individuals around but also need to a few people who criticize every person objectively to create an balance mechanism."

"Although I lost my work, received death threats, was subjected to a lot of insults in this misogynist country, I'm not scared of them. Unlike that, I see a great leak of self-reliance and weakness in their intolerance. I won't strike an attitude such like a veteran of media, neither I'm first nor last also I'm not a hero. I'm just a witness to murdered children, grudge, hate, sectarianism, theft. My country is unclaimed case, will I keep quite?"

Who is Pelin Batu? 

Pelin Batu is a Turkish author, actress, historian, and television personality. Due to her father İnal Batu's occupation as a diplomat, she spent her childhood in many foreign countries including Pakistan, Czech Republic, France and the USA. She completed high school at Marymount School in New York and also pursued musical and theatre training at Mannes College of Music.

After starting literature and philosophy at New York University, she switched her subject to history and completed it at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. She made her film debut in 1999, portraying the role of Circassian Nevres in Harem Suare and has gone on to act with several more films and TV series.

Batu also hosted a show titled "Tarihin Arka Odası" (The Back Room of History) which aired on HaberTürk with Murat Bardakçı and Erhan Afyoncu. Interested in poetry from a young age, she has written, translated, and published many poems. Her first book of poetry "Glass" was published in 2003, followed by "The Book of Winds" in 2009.

Batu had written in Milliyet since on January, 2013.