Turkish police raid Zaman building, attempt to detain editor

Protesters stage demonstration as police officials raid the building. (Photo: Today's Zaman)

Date posted: December 14, 2014

Turkish police have raided the Zaman daily headquarters in İstanbul in early-morning operation, but failed to detain the chief of the newspaper.

Anti-terrorism units from İstanbul police department arrived at Zaman building in Yenibosna on Sunday morning, facing a fierce resistance by protesters. The police officials were allowed to enter inside the building, but could not proceed further as heavy presence of protesters created a small stampede.

The police reportedly came to detain Zaman daily editor-in-chief Ekrem Dumanlı. The officials said they could not “fulfill their tasks” because of the pressure and had to leave the building. Protesters chanted unceasing slogans such as “Free Media Cannot be Silenced.”

Source: Today's Zaman , December 14, 2014

Tags: Defamation of Hizmet | Hizmet and media | Turkey |

Related News

33rd Abant Platform: whither Turkey?

In his speech at the opening of the first session, Prof. Seyfettin Yuksel said: “If it had been said a few years ago that we would be discussing ‘Turkey’s direction’ in the coming years, none of us would have believed it. We were sure about Turkey’s direction.” Unfortunately, nowadays Turkey’s direction is seen as uncertain, and the country has strayed not only from its foreign policy but also from democratic norms and the rule of law in its domestic policies. Here are my notes from the conference.

PKK terrorism, piety and the Gülen movement

Adem Palabıyık*, March 29, 2012 A Chinese proverb notes that if you kill somebody, you intimidate thousands of others. To this end, the assaults against the Zaman offices in Europe by Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) supporters in recent times appear to be relevant to this proverb. Intimidation… But why the Gülen movement? The reason for […]

Hizmet and current political debates in Turkey

The Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV), whose honorary chairman is well-respected Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, released a statement on its website on Thursday explaining the stance of the Hizmet [service] movement (also know as Gulen movement) inspired by Gülen as a civilian one with no political ambitions. The association’s statement comes in response to […]

Future of political islam: lessons from Turkey, Egypt

The eruption of protests across the country in the summer of 2013 were a result of the AKP’s increasingly authoritarian governing style. Rather than reading these protests as a public expression of discomfort — and taking the recent corruption charges seriously before declaring them a conspiracy against the government by the rival Gulen movement — the government is currently pushing legislation within parliament that will not only abolish the separation between the judiciary and the executive but which will completely consolidate the judicial and executive powers at the hands of the government.

Or is it Gülenophobia?

Turkey’s frequently changing agenda has recently been dominated by one issue: An İstanbul prosecutor overseeing an investigation into a Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)-linked terrorist organization has asked the Ankara Prosecutor’s Office to hear the testimony of National Intelligence Organization (MİT) Undersecretary Hakan Fidan and has obtained arrest warrants for four other MİT agents. MERVE BÜŞRA […]

Accused Turkish Cleric Assails President on Anniversary of Coup Attempt in WSJ Interview

Fethullah Gulen repeated his declaration that he has never been involved in any coup-plotting. “I never thought that he could go so bad,” said Mr. Gulen, who said that the Turkish president was unleashing mass hysteria inside the country. “Some parts of Turkish society have lost their ability to think.”