turkey protest
© AFP 2016/ OZAN KOSE

Comment: The Turkish government is acting as if it has been backed into a corner and is striking out in mad desperation. Cihan news agency is most likely being attacked simply because they have been reporting the truth about Erdogan's genocidal war on Turkish Kurds and about Turkey's support for Daesh and the 'moderate rebels' in Syria (the papers' ties with CIA-linked Gulen notwithstanding). Perhaps Erdogan has come to the realization that his time has come; he has outlived his usefulness and will no longer enjoy the support of the Americans. So he is striking out at the media in order to cement his control of information and cut off the media's potential role in a color revolution. But by doing so, he is only digging himself deeper. As readers can see below, the foreign chastisement has begun. Erdogan is officially becoming an enemy of democracy. And we all know what happens to those.


Turkey's Cihan news agency was placed under state control and access to the agency was blocked, according to Turkish opposition media.

Turkey's Cihan news agency, part of the Feza Publications media conglomerate whose Zaman opposition newspaper offices have been raided in Istanbul, was placed under state control, Today's Zaman reported Saturday.

The latest move follows Friday's court order to place Zaman and Feza's other outlets under the management of government trustees.

"Cihan, the only news agency that was monitoring elections besides state-run Anadolu, now under trustee control," Today's Zaman tweeted.

​It added that trustees blocked access to the agency after the takeover.

Turkey's clampdown on journalists and restrictions on freedom of speech have been criticized by the international community, including the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, Russia and the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) organization.

RSF ranks Turkey 149th out of 180 countries in press freedom.

European Parliament President Martin Schulz said he intended to raise the press crackdown issue with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu at the EU-Turkey summit on Monday.

Moscow Calls on West to React to Turkey's Press Crackdown

Russia calls on its Western partners to demand compliance with European and international freedom of speech standards from Turkey, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Saturday.

Zakharova provided as examples Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's refusal to accept a Constitutional Court decision to release two senior Cumhurriyet journalists, and the raids of Zaman opposition daily and other outlets under the Feza Media Group on Friday.

"We are convinced that these subjects require the most meticulous and impartial review by the Council of Europe and the OSCE [the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe]. We hope that our Western partners will reject fears of irritating Ankara. It should be strongly demanded to comply with European and international commitments in terms of freedom of expression and media," she noted.

Council of Europe Urges Turkey to Protect Press Freedom

The Secretary General of the Council of Europe (CoE) Thorbjorn Jagland on Saturday called on Turkey to respect media freedom in the light of government seizure of the Feza Media Group.

"Yesterday's court decision to appoint trustees to Zaman media group is yet another worrying development with regard to media freedom in Turkey. The violent events in front of Zaman's headquarters in Istanbul are also challenging...I call on Turkish authorities to respect their legal obligation to protect media freedom," Jagland said in a statement published on the CoE website.

Jagland said that Turkey was a founding member of the CoE and party to the European Convention on Human Rights to which it must abide.

Turkish Police Use Plastic Bullets to Disperse Newspaper Takeover Protests

Turkish police on Saturday used plastic bullets in clashes with supporters of the Zaman newspaper protesting a court decision to place the opposition daily and other outlets of its parent company under state management, Turkey's Hurriyet daily reported.

Riot police were previously reported to have deployed tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse a crowd of Zaman's readers as protests entered their second day in Istanbul.