Reuters, Istanbul :Turkish authorities seized control of the country’s largest newspaper on Friday in a widening crackdown against supporters of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, an influential foe of President Tayyip Erdogan.Rights groups and European officials criticized the confiscation of Zaman newspaper and its sister publication, the English-language Today’s Zaman, which occurred on the eve of a summit between Turkey and the European Union and as concerns mount that the Turkish government is stifling critical media.Administrators were appointed to run Zaman at the request of an Istanbul prosecutor, state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Officials were not immediately available to confirm the reports.Erdogan accuses Gulen of conspiring to overthrow the government by building a network of supporters in the judiciary, police and media. Gulen denies the charges. The two men were allies until police and prosecutors seen as sympathetic to Gulen opened a corruption probe into Erdogan’s inner circle in 2013.”It has been a habit for the last three, four years, that anyone who is speaking against government policies is facing either court cases or prison, or such control by the government,” said Abdulhamit Bilici, editor-in-chief of Zaman. “This is a dark period for our country, our democracy.”Zaman is Turkey’s biggest selling newspaper, with a circulation of 650,000 as of the end of February, according to media-sector monitor MedyaTava website.Thousands of supporters gathered in the rain outside of Zaman’s Istanbul office where they waved Turkish flags and carried placards reading “Hands off my newspaper” live footage from Cihan, a broadcaster owned by Zaman’s parent, showed.”Zaman Media Group being silenced in Turkey. Crackdown on press freedom continues sadly,” Kati Piri, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on Turkey, said in a tweet. The EU is accused of turning a blind eye to Turkey’s human rights breaches, including the deaths of hundreds of civilians during security operations against Kurdish militants, because it needs Turkey’s help curbing the flow of migrants. [L8N16C1ZK]The crackdown on Zaman comes at an already worrying time for press freedom in Turkey.Two prominent journalists from the pro-opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper are facing potential life sentences on charges of endangering state security for publishing material that purports to show intelligence officials trucking arms to Syria.
