Turkish media company Feza Gazetecilik, publishers of the nation’s most widely circulated newspaper the Zaman, was forcibly taken over by Turkish police today, after an Istanbul Court signed off on a call to take over the group as a “terrorist organization.”
President Erdogan has been labeling most critical press as “terrorists” as a matter of course lately,, and in the case of Zaman the resentment goes back to the paper’s reporting on a 2013 corruption scandal which nearly ousted Erdogan, and which he only survived after expelling several judges and accusing the whole thing of being a “coup plot.”
After the police takeover, the court has approved the operation of the papers to be taken over by a group of government-appointed “trustees.” The move was condemned by existing staff at the paper, and also by several international free press groups.
The Erdogan government has become increasingly intolerant of any indication of dissent, with the Justice Ministry revealing earlier this week that in the past 18 months since Erdogan’s installation as president, over 1,800 people have been charged with criminal offenses related to “insulting the president.”
What is hhappening is far from clear. Anybody following Zaman for ghe last few years would have been appalled by the neocon quality of the media. I followed a number of regular anysts as well as the general tone and the spin, as well as the globalist narrative which somehow always blamed and accused the government of all sorts of misdeeds. Most never proven or grossly exaggerated. I was wondering for a long time how on earth would any government tolerate advocacy of armed secessionism with never a peep about who is funding and arming them. Ever since the coup plotting generals were put behind the bars — there is no end to NGO activism — all of them funded from ghe west. The “moderate religious leader”.Fetullah Gulen took a refuge in US and has been earning money through questionable (mildly put) schemas and funding religious cults, religious schools that feature jihad, and buying influence in police, prosecutors and universities including extreme left movement. He is the major shareholder of Zaman. US now will not say anything strong against an ally it needs and hopes to control by fomenting internal chaos while pretending to be gentle on the ruling party. Since vast majority supports the govrrnment it is wise to appear less strident — but the armies od western paid NGO on the streets in support of US backed media outlets are betraying the real dillema . How is it possible fhat the most outrageous accusations against the regime and its supposed collaboration with ISIS came from the media under control of the regime dnemy, the cleric exiled and living in US and who somehow has billions of dollars at his disposal to undermine stability in Turkey and publish the most serious accusations about complicity of the government in arming and financing terrorists in Syria? If this is true — why use subversion to topple the government via “moderate cleric” while at the same time pretending that it is protecti g its ally from harsh censure. Or is this now the case of the ruling party crackdown of US sponsored regime change that was long in coming but now that US needs Turkey for Syrian and possibly Iraq showdown — cannot afford to come down on Turkey and is weighing its options.