Turkey newspaper defiant after raid, warns of ‘darkest days’

A leading Turkish newspaper opposed to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and seized by authorities warned of the “darkest days” in the history of the press in a defiant edition Saturday as the police used rubber bullets to disperse a new protest. The late-night swoop against the Zaman newspaper raised fresh concerns over declining media freedoms in Turkey, a key European Union ally, ahead of a visit by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to Brussels Monday for a crucial summit meeting with EU leaders.

Zaman, closely linked to Mr Erdogan’s arch-foe, the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, was placed on Friday under administration after a court order which critics said was another attempt to silence opposition media.

“The Constitution is suspended,” the newspaper, which managed to print its latest issue despite the takeover, said on its front page in large font on a black background.

“Yesterday (Friday) marked one of the darkest days in the history of Turkish press,” it said.

The Turkish riot police on Saturday fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse a new protest by the newspaper’s supporters outside its Istanbul headquarters. “Free press cannot be silenced,” a group of demonstrators shouted.

The police used large amounts of tear gas, and water cannon and rubber bullets to disperse around 500 people, an AFP photographer at the scene reported. Zaman, with an estima-ted circulation of 650,000, went to print earlier than usual on Friday evening before the police raid and the number of its pages was reduced to 16 from 24, one of its journalists said.

Sevgi Akarcesme, the editor-in-chief of the paper’s English language edition Today’s Zaman, said the raided building had had all Internet connections cut. “We are not able to work anymore,” she wrote.

During Friday’s raid, police first cleared protesters with tear gas and water cannon, then used bolt-cutters to open the gates before dozens of officers marched in to take over the building and formally place it under administration, media images showed.

Once the building was cleared, court-appointed administrators were bussed inside the complex to begin their work, local media reported.

The new administrators on Saturday fired “Zaman’s editor-in-chief Abdulhamit Bilici, press reports said.

The raid prompted a worried response from the European Union, which urged Ankara to respect media freedom.