US calls decision by Turkey to seize Zaman newspaper ’troubling’
US State Department Spokesperson John Kirby. (Photo: Cihan)
Date posted: March 5, 2016
REUTERS | WASHINGTON
The US State Department on Friday called the decision by Turkish authorities to seize control of the country’s largest newspaper “troubling.”
“We see this as the latest in a series of troubling judicial and law enforcement actions taken by the Turkish government targeting media outlets and others critical of it,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing.
Turkish authorities seized control of the Zaman newspaper on Friday at the request of an İstanbul prosecutor, state-run Anadolu Agency reported, in a widening crackdown against supporters of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen.
Cem Foundation President İzzettin Doğan has said that Gülen supported the construction of cemevis (Alevi houses of worship) when signature campaigns were launched against the cemevis in some regions of Turkey.
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The Eskişehir Governor’s Office has stated that an annulled law was mistakenly used in the inspection warrants for Samanyolu Primary School and its high school as well as for a FEM prep school in the province, showing how carelessly the government-orchestrated operations are being carried out against the faith-based Gülen movement, also known as the Hizmet movement.
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Pro-government Turkish daily Takvim claimed in a Friday report that the White House held a special session on Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who is based in the US, in September 2014.
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Fethullah Gulen: He (Mr. Erdogan) has always had a reaction to those who do not obey him since the beginning. As I previously expressed in other occasions, maybe, he was concealing some of his feelings.
Ex-AK Party deputy Özdalga: Gov’t wants to make judiciary subordinate to executive power
“The issue is not only about corruption, it is also about the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers, things at the heart of the democratic regime. There is no democracy without these,” says Haluk Özdalga, who was a member of the ruling party since 2007 until his recent resignation.
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