Turkish police raid Zaman HQs, fire tear gas on readers after gov’t takeover

Turkish police fired tear gas and used water cannon on a crowd to forcibly enter the country's top-selling newspaper on Friday after a court ordered its confiscation. 
An İstanbul court 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.
Police in riot gear pushed back Zaman supporters who stood in the rain outside its İstanbul office where they waved Turkish flags and carried placards reading "Hands off my newspaper" before they were overcome by clouds of tear gas.
Officers then forcibly broke down a gate and rushed into

Turkish police raid Zaman HQs, fire tear gas on readers after gov’t takeover

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and rushed into the building. The footage showed them scuffling with Zaman staff inside the offices.

This is both the highest circulated paper in Turkey, and it's first to go online. Being highly critical of the current regime, it has had at least two stories I can recall linking a seemingly friendly relationship between the Turkish government and ISIS/Daesh.

This is a terrible assault on the Turkish people and their freedoms. More and more bad news from Turkey lately. I'm just wondering how bad things will get. Maybe its still a little too early to be talking revolution, but the citizens have to at least begin to be concerned when all these recent actions are combined, and I would personally be a little worried about what the government will do next.

I'm posting from my mobile, so I apologize for a lack of substance, and maybe I'll try to add some more in a future edit.

Here are some other sources besides the Zaman newspaper itself:

FP
foreignpolicy.com...

NBC (link not working, might be that the url was too long?)
feeds.nbcnews.com... 32241/story01.htm

NYTimes
www.nytimes.com...


BBC
www.bbc.com...

RT
www.rt.com...

Turkey government has just sunk to all time lows over the last couple of years. History will not paint a pretty picture for them during this decade at all. At least they just seized the building and kicked everyone out. I dont believe anyone was arrested or beaten to near death and ushered off to a undisclosed site.

Maybe they are buying ISIS oil for a reason?

a reply to: AmericanRealist

At least we can be thankful for that.

However, year gas and water cannons were used on the, from what I understand, peaceful protesters (i can't speak on the legality of this gathering as my knowledge of Turkish law is lacking at best) outside, and I heard some of the employees were treated roughly though I'm not yet sure of the extent of that.

Here is the Twitter feed with related tweets, some from the journalist's

mobile.twitter.com...

originally posted by: onequestion
Maybe they are buying ISIS oil for a reason?

Have you got any ideas, other than the obvious potential for cheap oil and the fact that all developed nations are using tremendous amounts? You think they are planning for war, or some kind of worldwide economic collapse or some other shtf scenario?

I tried posting this news, thanks for doing it. Its quite clear that Turkey is supporting the islamists and other terrorists groups.

This also means he lost the challenge to Putin.

originally posted by: TaleDawn
I tried posting this news, thanks for doing it. Its quite clear that Turkey is supporting the islamists and other terrorists groups.

This also means he lost the challenge to Putin.

Definitely looks like the Turkish government is trying to cover up their duplicity in pretending to be fighting the Islamists while at the same time supplying weapons, uniforms and medical supplies. Trying to cover up news reporting and the truth getting out is the first thing that corrupt regimes do anywhere.

a reply to: 3n19m470

We can congratulate Turkey of their new Islamic Dictatorship, by Erdogan, with support of Saudis and Qatars, can now almost call himself a Sultan, in his 15,000 room palace in Ankara. An anatolian devote muslmi peasant, as a dictator, is a dream come true, in a land, which used to be secular, and drop those like Erdogan, dead in Bosporus.

I pity Turkey today. I pity its government. I pity its people who have had to see the heritage of great Ataturk being washed through pages of Koran, and ideals corrupted by power hungry Islamists.

Once again, we can see, what a terrible combination Religion and Political Power can be.

My prayers go for a swift better future for people of Turkey.

This is what the Turkish people have been voting for. It's mindboggling to me.

a reply to: OccamsRazor04

This should be a warning for America ...



1st edition of Turkish Zaman daily after govt takeover sees smiling Erdogan on front page

The editorial policy of Turkey’s best-selling Zaman newspaper, formerly critical of the government, has apparently gone through a change. The Sunday edition, under a newly appointed administration, now appears to support the official line.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan can be seen on the new Zaman daily’s front page, smiling in an article announcing a presidential reception on upcoming Women's Day (March 8). A costly governmental project of a new bridge to be built across Istanbul's Bosphorus Strait was also headlined, as well as reports on the funerals of "martyrs" killed in clashes with the Kurds.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu denied any links between the government takeover of the paper and changes in its editorial policy, saying the seizure had nothing to do with the paper's criticism of the authorities.

"There are many media outlets in Turkey that criticize our government. None of them are subjected to legal procedures," Davutoglu told A Haber television on Sunday, as quoted by AFP. "What's in question here is not merely press activity, but rather an operation targeting a legitimate government that came to power with popular support," he added, referring to Zaman's affiliation with now US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, a fierce critic of President Erdogan, who was put on a "most-wanted terrorist list" by Ankara.