Veteran journalist Altan Öymen passes away: 'I have never seen such a period'...

The death of Altan Öymen — one of Turkey's most respected journalists and a former leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP) — was met with profound grief in the worlds of politics and media.

Following his passing, a large number of people — from politicians to citizens, from the arts community to his fellow journalists — shared condolence messages on social media. The posts highlighted Altan Öymen's resolute lifelong struggle for Republican values and the ideal of enlightenment.

Altan Öymen's visit to 12Punto also left a lasting impression. One of the most important intellectual figures in the history of Turkish media and politics, Öymen answered questions from Tuncay Mollaveisoğlu in an interview in which he assessed the practices of the current political administration and drew attention to the fact that Turkey was going through a period unprecedented in the history of the Turkish Republic.

'I HAVE NEVER SEEN SUCH A PERIOD'

Former CHP leader Altan Öymen had, before his passing, attended rallies in Saraçhane following the March 19 operation and lent them his strong support.

In what would be his final assessment of Turkey's troubled period, delivered on 12Punto's screens, Öymen had said the following:

''In the 1950s, they first detained Cüneyt Arcayürek and Bedii Faik Akın and kept those two journalists inside for 15 days because they had criticised the government. A case was going to be opened, but it had turned into a situation like pre-trial detention. They later released those colleagues. In those days, if a person had committed a crime, the execution of the sentence would begin. Now there is no execution of a sentence at all; an indictment has not even been drawn up yet, and people are in prison. Not for 3 months, 5 months, or 7 months — sometimes it stretches into years. And this is not the execution of a sentence; it becomes the application of punishment. In other words, pre-trial detention is being used as a punishment. Pre-trial detention is now being used as a punishment.''

Öymen also shared his views on the new dialogue process, saying: ''The government is on one hand negotiating with the DEM Party and the PKK, and on the other hand opening an investigation against the CHP by saying 'you cooperated with them.' What kind of logic is this? These contradictions have not been passed through a sound filter of thought. You cannot simply tell someone out of nowhere 'you are guilty.' Even if a case is opened against someone, no one can be declared guilty before the verdict becomes final. This is incompatible with democracy.''