Erdogan’s Newspaper Raid Won’t Silence Critics of Regime

On the evening of March 4, 2016, Turkish police in riot gear stormed the headquarters of the Zaman Daily newspaper. A court order had proclaimed that the newspaper was being influenced by Fetullah Gulen and was now being placed under state control. The following day police and about 500 protestors clashed outside the headquarters of Zaman Daily. Anti-Erdogan opponents have come out and said this is another example of his dictatorship and means to suppress human rights.

Protestors yelled, “Free press cannot be silenced” as riot police fired water cannons, tear gas, and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. The Daily Zaman has been linked to Fetullah Gulen, an Islamist intellectual whose movement was an early ally for Erdogan’s AK party, before shifting and becoming highly critical of the Erdogan regime.

Gulen fled Turkey in 1999 when charges were filed against him for threatening the secular constitution. Gulen, who resides in Pennsylvania, is believed to have developed expansive influence over Turkish law enforcement, as well as the judiciary, media, financial interests, and a wide network of schools both Turkey and around the globe, including in the United States.

The Erdogan administration claims that Gulen runs the Fetahullahaci Terror Organization/State Parallel Structure (FeTO/PDY) seeking to overthrow legitimate Turkish authorities. Prior to the raid on the Daily Zaman, Turkish authorities arrested four executives from major Turkish conglomerates and charged with financially assisting Gulen.

Abdulhamit Bilici, editor-in-chief of the Daily Zaman, made the statement after learning he was fired, “Democracy will continue and free media will not be silent.” Daily Zaman workers who arrived on Saturday for work were denied internal access to their servers.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu noted that the takeover was “legal, and not political. It is out of the question for either me or my colleagues to interfere in this process.”

Just last weekend the Turkish regime shutdown an independent pro-Kurdish channel IMV TV was taken off the air for apparently broadcasting “terrorist propaganda” to militant Kurds.

On Sunday Daily Zaman workers published an underground newspaper called “Yarina Bakis” or Look to Tomorrow with the headline “Water cannons, tear gas, and rubber bullets are not enough: Throw him out!” The headline derived from a Turkish police officer’s reaction to removing a protestor on Saturday. No one is sure where or how the Yarina Bakis was published, but all Twitter feeds from the Daily Zaman are being directed to Yarina Bakis.

The Daily Zaman has not been the only newspaper targeted by the Erdogan regime. The Cumhuriyet Newspaper’s editor-in-chief Can Dundar and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul were ordered by Turkish courts to be released from prison after being denied their rights. The two men were arrested in November and released this February but still face trial hearings on March 25.

Meanwhile 2,000 bloggers, journalists, and ordinary citizens find themselves being prosecuted for apparently insulting the Erdogan regime. Media outlets report there are 30 journalists mostly of Kurdish origin currently imprisoned in Turkey.

The European Union (EU) and United States (US) are both troubled by Turkey’s violent means to put down opposition media outlets throughout the country. Turkey’s harsh treatment of media doesn’t just apply to local but foreign media as well ranking 149 out of 180 in the 2015 Reporters without Borders World Press Freedom Index.

The Daily Zaman’s last publication on Saturday stated, “the Constitution has fallen.” The E.U. and U.S. have so far expressed little interest in curtailing Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian rule content to verbally reprimand the Erdogan regime in diplomatic language.

The raid on Daily Zaman comes on top of other mounting concerns regarding Turkey’s behavior, including it’s role in the the Syrian conflict, including ties to Al Qaeda and Islamic State fighters, and the widening crackdown on the Kurds. Until confronted, the Erdogan’s regime will continue to use to expand its control at the expense of it’s rivals, press freedom, and human rights.