Mehmet Altan


Mehmet Hasan Altan is a Turkish academic economist, journalist, and author of over 25 books. Describing himself as a "Marxist-liberal", he is the originator of the term "Second Republic", arguing that Turkey needs to reconstitute its republic as a true democracy. He is a strong supporter of the Accession of Turkey to the European Union.
On 10 September 2016, Altan was arrested in the wake of the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt. He was later indicted on charges of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order and acting on behalf of a terrorist organization. The Constitutional Court of Turkey ruled on 11 January 2018 that his rights as a journalist had been violated, but his subsequent application for release was rejected by Istanbul Assize Court. On 16 February 2018 he was sentenced to life in prison. In response to this, on 20 March 2018, the European Court of Human Rights made a ruling that determined that his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights had been violated, namely Article, namely Article 5 § 1 and Article 10.

Background

He was born 1953 in Ankara, Turkey to the journalist and writer Çetin Altan as the second of two sons. His brother Ahmet Altan is also a journalist and writer.
Altan studied at the Sorbonne University from 1979 to 1984, completing masters and doctoral degrees in economics.

Career

Altan has worked at the Istanbul University Faculty of Economics since 1986, first as assistant professor, then associate professor and full professor.
From 1987 to November 2006 he contributed to Sabah, before moving to Star, becoming editor-in-chief. He left Star in January 2012. He has been dismissed from his paper because of government's pressures on media.

Prosecution

He got sentenced to life in prison for terror related charges in February 2018 because the day before the Turkish coup d`état attempt 2016, according to Reuters he said on television: “Whatever the developments were that led to military coups in Turkey, by making the same decisions, Erdogan is paving the same path”. On the 27 June 2018 he got released pending trial.

Books