Zaman Editor-in-Chief Dumanlı faces probe over ‘insult’ to Erdoğan in news report

Zaman editor-in-chief Ekrem Dumanlı holds a banner that says
Zaman editor-in-chief Ekrem Dumanlı holds a banner that says "Free media cannot be silenced" outside his newspaper's headquarters in İstanbul's Yenibosna. (Photo: Today's Zaman, Selahattin Sevi)


Date posted: February 24, 2015

An investigation has reportedly been launched into Zaman daily Editor-in-Chief Ekrem Dumanlı for “insulting” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a news report that appeared on the website of the daily.

According to a report by journalist Arzu Yıldız on independent news portal t24.com on Friday, Erdoğan’s lawyers filed a criminal complaint against Dumanlı on Feb. 16 over an article that appeared on Zaman daily’s website on Jan. 10, which reported on on the tweets of a government whistleblower who writes on Twitter under the pseudonym Fuat Avni. Prosecutors reportedly launched an investigation against Dumanlı upon the complaint.

A short story on Zaman’s website, www.zaman.com.tr, on Jan. 10 carried quotes from Fuat Avni’s tweets saying the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) would carry out murders in Turkey and lay the blame on members of the faith-based Gülen movement, popularly known as the Hizmet Movement, which is inspired by the views of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

Fuat Avni, who claims to be in Erdoğan’s inner circle, tweeted on Jan. 10 that “Yezid” had initially planned to use the Dec. 14, 2014 operations against the media to announce the Gülen movement as a terrorist organization, but had to resort to other methods to do so as that had failed.

Fuat Avni’s tweets that appeared in the story did not mention Erdoğan’s name directly, but used the word “Yezid” which was implied to mean Erdoğan. Yezid is a reference to the Umayyad caliph, who according to Islamic belief allowed his opponent Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, to die of thirst in the Battle of Karbala.

Dumanlı was among a number of journalists, columnists, scriptwriters and producers who were arrested on Dec. 14 in a large-scale media crackdown. Some of the detainees including Dumanlı were later released pending trial.

Source: Today's Zaman , February 20, 2015

Tags: | | | |


Related News

Democracy is vanishing in Turkey, specialist says

Zeynalov reminded the attendees that Erdogan also was arrested a couple of decades ago. That eventually helped him to become famous and won him the elections five years later. But it didn’t stop Erdogan to use the same law for justifying the arrest of Zeynalov in 2014.

Calls to boycott Hizmet institutions denting market confidence

Calls that have been made over a period of several months by top government officials, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to boycott schools and institutions run by the Hizmet movement will undermine confidence in Turkish markets, a recent report has said.

Over 30 Turkish diplomats, families seek asylum in Germany

Nearly three dozen Turkish diplomats and family members have claimed asylum in Germany over alleged affiliation to the network of US-based opposition leader Fethullah Gulen, whom the government in Ankara claims to have masterminded the failed July 15 coup attempt.

What Erdogan and Khomeini Have in Common

The Turkish secular elite who have long feared an Iranian-style theocracy in their own country may finally be seeing the worst of their fears come true. The widespread purges under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following last month’s failed coup attempt against his government suggest the Turkish state is moving toward authoritarian Islamist rule of the sort that Iran introduced in 1979.

Gulen wants Anatolian [interpretation of] Islam

What does Gulen say? He says: “Work hard and earn money, but be honest. Allah will reward your hard work and honesty. But do not squander that reward. Turn it into an investment and help others.” It sounds a lot like the Protestant work ethic. This is the underlying vision of capitalism. The Gulen Movement looks a lot like the Ottoman-era Ahi movement. It is a kind of a solidarity group that provides people with jobs, education, and reintegration into society.

Torture – Black Sites of Turkey

In a near-repeat of the CIA’s ‘extraordinary renditions’, the regime of Turkish president Erdoğan is kidnapping dozens of members of the Gülen movement from around the world. Victims are now raising a serious accusation: secret torture sites are part of the repression. A team of nine media organizations from eight countries, coordinated by CORRECTIV, investigates.

Latest News

Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison

Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney

Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement

ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment

New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement

European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade

Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet

In Case You Missed It

Imam Wahy-ud Deen Shareef: What we see in ISIL may be fire, but it is not illumination

U.S. would look weak, and be weak, if they sent Muslim cleric back to Turkey

Karzai honored Turkish schools in his country

Turkish school sacrifices over 150 cows for Eidil Adha

Turkey wants India to crack down on ‘Gulen’ schools

Zaman Editor-in-Chief: Turkish government no longer democratic

The impact of corruption on elections

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News