Turkish artist Zehra Doğan sentenced to nearly 3 years in prison for painting

Zehra Doğan, a Turkish painter and journalist, was sentenced to two years, nine months, and twenty-two days in prison by the Mardin Criminal Court. She was arrested on July 21, 2016, while sitting in a café, not for her work with the Jinha news agency but for her artistic practice. The charges stemmed from paintings that allegedly endangered military operations, particularly one depicting destruction caused by Turkish security forces in the Nusaybin district of Mardin province, where she painted Turkish flags on rubble. The court ruled that sharing the image on social media was the key offense. Doğan was accused of links to the militant PKK group, which fights for Kurdish rights. Her case follows a broader crackdown after the failed July 2016 coup attempt, which led to the closure of three news agencies, sixteen TV channels, forty-five newspapers, and fifteen magazines, and the arrest of forty-seven journalists. In November 2016, the Akademie der Künste in Berlin published an open letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel urging greater efforts to secure the release of imprisoned artists and journalists in Turkey. Doğan defended her work, citing Picasso: "Do you really think a painter is simply a person who uses his brush to paint insects and flowers? No artist turns his back on society; a painter must use his brush as a weapon against oppressors. Not even Nazi soldiers accused Picasso because of his paintings: I am on trial because of my works."