Turkish police on Saturday fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters outside the country’s biggest newspaper after authorities seized control of it in a crackdown on a religious group whose leader the government accuses of treason.
A court on Friday appointed an administrator to run the flagship Zaman, English-language Today’s Zaman and Cihan news agency, which are linked to US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said plotted a coup.
Rights groups and European officials condemned the takeover, seeing it as proof that the Turkish government silences dissident views. Other media outlets affiliated with Gulen’s movement were taken over in October last year, and companies including a bank have been seized, wiping out billions of dollars in valuations.
Photo: AP
“Turkey has the right to question those who take part in a clear coup attempt, whether economic or journalistic, against an elected government,” Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said while on a trip to Tehran. “There is a legal process examining charges of political operations, including funneling illegal monies. We have never intervened in the legal process.”
Erdogan has repeatedly pledged to crush Gulen’s conservative religious movement, which he said has infiltrated the police, judiciary and bureaucracy since his party won power in 2002.
“Extremely worried about latest developments on Zaman newspaper which jeopardizes progress made by Turkey in other areas,” European Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn said on Twitter.
European Parliament President Martin Schulz said on Twitter that the takeover was “yet another blow to press freedom,” adding that he and Davutoglu would discuss it today.
Critics have accused the EU of turning a blind eye to Turkey’s rights record because it needs Ankara’s help curbing huge flows of refugees and migrants.
Turkey, which borders Syria, Iraq and Iran, is scheduled to join EU leaders in Brussels at a crisis summit today.
Davutoglu said the “positive agenda will now be occupied and stained” with the issue of press freedom.
“Any country, and in particular those negotiating EU accession, needs to guarantee fundamental rights, including freedom of expression, and due judicial process, in line with the European Convention on Human Rights,” the European Commission said in a statement.
Police first raided Zaman near midnight on Friday, firing tear gas and water cannon and forcing open a gate to enter the offices. Employees returned to work on Saturday under the new administrator but Zaman editor-in-chief Abdulhamit Bilici and columnist Bulent Kenes were fired, Today’s Zaman editor Sevgi Akarcesme said.
“It is a dark day for Turkish democracy and a flagrant violation of the constitution,” Akarcesme told reporters, adding that most media were not fully reporting the takeover for fear of similar reprisals.
Republican People’s Party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said the court was acting as a political tool.
Zaman’s editors were largely supportive of Erdogan during much of his party’s rule, but they fell out over foreign policy and a move to close schools run by the Gulen movement, a source of much of its influence and income.
Then, police officers thought to be following Gulen’s teachings leaked news of a corruption investigation into Erdogan’s inner circle in December 2013, which Erdogan described as a coup attempt.
The raid on Zaman and its sister publications was “nothing but a veiled move by the president to eradicate opposition media and scrutiny of government policies,” Human Rights Watch senior Turkey researcher Emma Sinclair-Webb said.
In Berlin, Christian Democratic Union lawmaker Norbert Roettgen said: “Not only the violent action against a critical newspaper, but also the fact that the government takes over the whole paper is a severe blow by the Turkish leadership against the freedom of press.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number