Turkey issues arrest warrants for 47 more journalists
July 27, 2016
Turkish authorities on Wednesday issued arrest warrants for 47 former journalist and executives of the "Zaman" newspaper as part of a growing crackdown on thousands of alleged sympathizers of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who the government accuses of orchestrating a failed coup attempt.
"The prosecutors aren't interested in what individual columnists wrote or said. At this point, the reasoning is that prominent employees of "Zaman" are likely to have intimate knowledge of the Gulen network and as such could benefit the investigation," an anonymous Turkish official told reporters.
The opposition "Zaman" was the largest circulating newspaper in the country before it was taken over by government administrators in March for its alleged ties to the Gulen movement.
Some of its writers were leftists and liberals, not Islamist Gulen followers. Among those arrested was Sahin Alpay, an academic and a former official in Turkey's main secularist opposition CHP party. He used to have a column in "Zaman" and its English language version "Today's Zaman."
Some former writers on the arrest warrant list are believed to be out of the country.
Since being taken over by administrators "Zaman" has toed a strong pro-government line. The paper used to be pro-government until a falling out between Gulen and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan three years ago.
The move against the former "Zaman" staff comes two days after arrest warrants were issued for another 42 journalists.
More than 60,000 soldiers, police, judges, teachers and civil servants have been arrested, suspended or put under investigation for suspected ties to Gulen as part of a wide reaching purge that has raised concerns from the United States, European Union and human rights organizations.
The Turkish government accuses Gulen of creating a "parallel state" in an effort to seize control of the country. Gulen, whose followers run an vast network of schools, charities and businesses, strongly denies directing the coup.
Critics of Erdogan worry that he is using the failed coup and broad emergency powers to crack down on all opposition.
cw/msh (AFP, dpa, Reuters)