Today’s Zaman was one of the very few opposition newspapers left in Turkey and it was one of the best.
Now it’s basically gone:
https://twitter.com/todayszamancom/status/705771725225660416
https://twitter.com/todayszamancom/status/705803622190342144
Here’s more:
TODAY’S ZAMAN – An İstanbul court has appointed trustees to take over the management of the Feza Media Group, which includes Turkey’s biggest-selling newspaper, the Zaman daily, as well as the Today’s Zaman daily and the Cihan news agency, dealing a fresh blow to the already battered media freedom in Turkey.
The decision was issued by the İstanbul 6th Criminal Court of Peace at the request of the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, which claimed that the media group acted upon orders from what it called the “Fethullahist Terrorist Organization/Parallel State Structure (FETÖ/PDY),” praising the group and helping it achieve its goals in its publications.
The prosecutor also claimed that the alleged terrorist group is cooperating with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist organization to topple the Turkish government and that high-level officials of the two groups have had meetings abroad.
So basically Today’s Zaman was seized because it’s owned by Fethullah Gülen and Erdogan has been on a Gülen rampage ever since he was exposed in a massive corruption scandal in 2013. Erdogan has been arresting anyone associated with the Gülen and taking out any Gülen opposition paper he can find.
Erdogan hates opposition media to begin with and has been taking them out for some time. In fact he often associates anything he hates with Fethullah Gülen, even if there is no association, in order to justify him arresting someone or seizing their media company.
But in this case the association is there and I’m surprised it’s taken him this long to do it.
In any event, this is one of my favorite news sites to read on what is actually happening in Turkey and now it’s gone. Or it will be in the next day or so.
Erdogan’s thugs have already put chains on the entrance to the Zaman building:
2016 is turning out to be a very bad year for Antichrist Turkey. Between the massive media seizures, the planned rewriting of their constitution and the war with the Kurds that has turned Eastern Turkey into a warzone, the old secular Turkey is almost completely gone.
We’ve long suspected that Erdogan is indeed the Man of Lawlessness, as he is at the center of the terrible transformation in the Middle East to reincarnate the old Ottoman Empire. Yes, Erdogan is very much trying to create the new Ottoman Empire 2.0 by 2023, just 7 years from now, and will destroy anyone that stands in his way.
And today he’s destroyed Today’s Zaman.
R.I.P. opposition journalism in Turkey.