Roots of a Civilisation
ON 2 SEPTEMBER 2017 , Çağdaş Erdoğan, a Turkish photojournalist of Kurdish descent, was detained while walking through Istanbul’s Yoğurtçu Park. He was initially accused of photographing the headquarters of the Millî İstihbarat Teşkilatı, Turkey’s intelligence agency. “But it is entirely fictitious,” he said in an interview with the British Journal of Photography, “because the place where I photographed is just a park, and there isn’t any building, or even signs that show the presence of a restricted area where you cannot take pictures.” On 13 September, he was officially charged with being a member of a terrorist organisation, based on his previous work photographing members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party—known by its Turkish acronym, PKK. After spending six months in pre-trial detention, he was released on bail at the first hearing of his case, on 13 February 2018. “They already knew I was going to be released after the first hearing in court; they just extended my detention to punish me,” he said.
Following an attempted military coup, on 15 July 2016, the Turkish
