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

Government purges police officers who exposed massive corruption

Since the corruption and bribery investigation into businessmen and senior government officials, including four then-ministers, went public on Dec. 17 and Dec. 25, 2013, thousands of police officers have been removed from their posts and reassigned to other positions because of alleged links to the Hizmet movement.

Newly-released journo offers insider view at victims of Turkey Purge

Briefly detained for taking photos of the street next to the Istanbul’s Gayrettepe Police Station, the journalist Tuğba Tekerek has talked about her detention period, shedding lights on what people, jailed as part of the government’s ever-increasing crackdown on the Gülen Movement, get through behind bars.

Erdogan’s Private Youth Army

Initially, the youth branches will be formed in 1,500 mosques. But under the plan, 20,000 mosques will have youth branches by 2021, and finally 45,000 mosques will have them. Observers fear the youth branches may turn into Erdogan’s “mosque militia,” like the Nazi Party’s Hitler Youth organization in Germany.

Gov’t keeps purging, dozens of police officials across Turkey have been removed

The government’s massive purge of members of the police and judiciary following the eruption of a corruption and bribery scandal continued across the country on Tuesday, with dozens more police officials being removed from their posts.

Fethullah Gülen’s Message of Condolences and Condemnation of the Terrorist Attack in Istanbul

Fethullah Gülen: I condemn, in the strongest terms, the cruel terrorist attack carried out beside the Istanbul Beşiktaş Football Stadium that cost the lives of 44 of Turkish citizens, the majority of whom are members of the security forces.

The Erdoğan-Did-It Conspiracy

While on its face, the notion that elements in the Turkish military loyal to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan deliberately launched a “fake coup” to justify a crackdown on Erdoğan’s enemies sounds farfetched, the belief is taking hold not only among Turkey’s staunch secularist minority and followers of Pennsylvania-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, but also among those who know the Turkish military well.

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

Detained woman, newborn baby transferred to police station 240 km away from home

Council of Europe concerned over government’s ‘hasty’ judicial bill

Diplomatic Row over Gulen Influence in Africa

I object to AK Party’s ‘New Turkey’

Turkey crackdown: Gulen sympathizers abroad are feeling the heat

MİT to monitor all religious groups as potential parts of parallel state

Pro-Gov’t Columnist Suggests Setting Turkey’s Silivri Prison Ablaze To Kill Inmates From Gülen Movement

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News