Turkey Seizes Control Of Anti-Erdogan Daily In Midnight Raid

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شنبه 15 حوت 1394 ساعت 11:31 نوشته شده توسط AFP

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Turkish police on Friday raided the premises of a daily newspaper staunchly opposed to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, using tear gas and water cannons to disperse supporters and enter the building to impose a court order placing the media business under administration.

Police fired the tear gas and water cannon to move away a hundreds-strong crowd that had formed outside the headquarters of the Zaman newspaper in Istanbul following the court order that was issued earlier in the day, an AFP photographer said.

Zaman, closely linked to Erdogan's arch-foe the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, was ordered into administration by the court on the request of Istanbul prosecutors, the state-run Anatolia news agency said.

There was no immediate official explanation for the court's decision. The move means the court will appoint new managers to run the newspaper, who will be expected to transform its editorial line.

Hundreds of supporters had gathered outside the paper's headquarters in Istanbul awaiting the arrival of bailiffs and security forces after the court order.

"We will fight for a free press," and "We will not remain silent" said placards held by protestors, according to live images broadcast on the pro-Gulen Samanyolu TV.

"Democracy will continue and free media will not be silent," Zaman's editor-in-chief Abdulhamit Bilici was quoted as saying by the Cihan news agency outside its headquarters.

"I believe that free media will continue even if we have to write on the walls. I don't think it is possible to silence media in the digital age," he told Cihan, part of the Zaman media group.

But shortly before midnight, a team of police arrived with two TOMA water cannon trucks and dispersed the crowds also using tear gas.

Police then marched into the premises of the newspaper to seize the headquarters and formally place it under administration.

The court order had already aroused the conce of the United States, which said it was "the latest in a series of troubling judicial and law enforcement actions taken by the Turkish govement targeting media outlets and others critical of it."

"We urge Turkish authorities to ensure their actions uphold the universal democratic values enshrined in their own constitution, including freedom of speech and especially freedom of the press," State Department spokesman John Kirby said.

Gulen has been based in the United States since 1999 when he fled charges against him laid by the former secular authorities.

Turkey has asked the United States to extradite him but Washington has shown little appetite for doing so.

Despite living outside of Turkey, Gulen built up huge influence in the country through allies in the police and judiciary, media and financial interests and a vast network of cramming schools.

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