Zaman (daily newspaper)

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Zaman
logo
description daily newspaper
publishing company Feza Gazetecilik A.Ş.
First edition 3rd November 1986
attitude 2016
Frequency of publication Every day
Sold edition 648,233 copies
(End of February 2014)
Editor-in-chief Ekrem Dumanlı (2001-October 2015)

Abdülhamit Bilici (October 2015-March 2016)

editor Ali Akbulut
Web link Turkey ( Memento from March 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive )

Germany ( Memento from September 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive )

Former headquarters of the newspaper

Zaman ( German  time ) was a newspaper founded in Turkey in 1986 , which described itself as “value-oriented-conservative”. With a circulation of up to a million copies and more, Zaman was by far the largest newspaper in the country for years; in its final years it was also often referred to as “Turkey's largest opposition newspaper”. (For more information, see edition .) It was dissolved on July 27, 2016 by government decree.

history

overview

In 1986 business people influenced by Fethullah Gülen founded the newspaper. It was published by Feza Gazetecilik. The editorial center was initially in Ankara , but was soon relocated to Istanbul.

The founding editor-in-chief was the journalist Fehmi Koru , who held this post in 1986/87, but remained chief commentator until 1998 and briefly returned to Zaman as an author in 2010/11 . He was followed as editors-in-chief by Mehmet Şevket Eygi (1987–89), Hüseyin Gökçe (1989/90), Mustafa Başarı, Hüseyin Gulerce and Mahmut Çebi (1999–2001).

In 2001, Ekrem Dumanlı became editor-in-chief, who had started working in the culture department of Zaman in 1993 and had a decisive influence on the paper in his 14 years as editor-in-chief. In October 2015, Dumanlı resigned from this post. "Because of the recent unlawful pressure against the press and myself, I am unable to fulfill my role as editor-in-chief," he wrote in his resignation. The last regular editor-in-chief was Abdülhamit Bilici , who previously held the same post at the Cihan news agency .

Alignment

In general, the newspaper was assigned to the Gülen movement around Fethullah Gülen . He himself wrote a Friday column in the newspaper, but according to Helen Rose Ebaugh, he was never active in financial or administrative matters. Most independent observers, however, see a much closer connection and refer to Zaman as the “mouthpiece”, “flagship” or “central organ” of the Gülen movement.

For a long time there was also a close relationship with the Justice and Recovery Party (AKP) and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan . At the beginning of 2012 Erdoğan, who was still Prime Minister at the time, gave the laudation at the ceremony for the 25th birthday of the Zaman and thanked their employees for raising "our voice in the world".

In 2011, when journalists such as Ahmet Şık and Soner Yalçın were accused of being part of a conspiracy against Erdoğan's government in the so-called Oda TV trial, then editor-in-chief Ekrem Dumanlı wrote: “Some who call themselves journalists use this profession as a Armament behind which they wage psychological wars. ”And on June 7, 2013, at the height of the Gezi protests , Zaman - along with Sabah , Yeni Şafak , Habertürk , Star , Türkiye and Güneş - was one of seven daily newspapers that were identical to the one Headline, a comment by then Prime Minister Erdoğan on the protests, appeared. Critics saw this as a sign of direct government influence. The paper only took a clearly oppositional stance to the Erdogan government after the rift between Gülen and Erdoğan at the end of 2013. In the course of the corruption scandal at the end of 2013 , the newspaper published several detailed revelations which, according to observers, “could actually only come from the dossiers of the public prosecutors”.

But even if a significant number of the authors and editors - especially the leading editors - were Gülen supporters and many more came from the Islamic-conservative spectrum, the paper tried to address other milieus as well. This is also reflected in the authorship, which in addition to Islamic-conservative authors such as Fehmi Koru, Hüseyin Gülerce, Ali Bulaç and Mümtaz'er Türköne, also included liberal and left-wing liberal authors such as Elif Şafak , Şahin Alpay and Etyen Mahçupyan .

Elif Şafak, who wrote a regular column in the Sunday edition of Zaman from 2005 to 2009, explained her motivation as follows: “For years people asked me why I was writing for 'Zaman'. Sometimes this question resulted from a sincere curiosity, sometimes from a palpable prejudice. But Zaman is no other Turkey. There is only one turkey. I wrote for Zaman because she created opportunities to build bridges of empathy between seemingly different people. "

Character, memberships and awards

Regardless of its political orientation and its relationship with the Gülen movement, Zaman has often been characterized as a quality newspaper.

Zaman and the English-language sister paper Today's Zaman were the only Turkish membership newspapers of the International Newspaper Color Quality Club .

Zaman was awarded the Society for Newsdesign (SND) media prize.

Sister newspapers

The Cihan news agency and the Aksiyon news magazine were closely associated with Zaman . Since December 2006, Today's Zaman has appeared as an English-language sister newspaper. In March 2015, the tabloid branch Meydan was added. These publications appeared at least temporarily in the same publishing house as Zaman . In addition, there was overlap with the television station Samanyolu TV .

Raids and Receivables

In mid-December 2014, about a year after the rift between Gülen and Erdoğan, the Zaman editorial office was raided by the police . For the first time in Turkish history, a journalist was arrested during a live broadcast. It was the then editor-in-chief Ekrem Dumanlı. The arrest was heavily criticized by the European Union , the OSCE and journalists' associations. Dumanlı was released conditionally after interrogation. The police action had been announced shortly before by the whistleblower account Fuat Avni .

In early March 2016, an Istanbul court appointed three lawyers to be Zaman’s “trustees” . According to a report by Deniz Yücel in the world , one of them was Metin Ilhan , a former official of the Union of European-Turkish Democrats (UETD). On March 4, 2016, the Turkish police stormed the editorial building to give the administrators access, using water cannons and tear gas. The compulsory administration was ordered by a "justice of the peace".

On March 5, 2016, the last Zaman published by the old editorial team was published . The front page was all black, with the headline “Forced administration for Zaman” and the headline “Constitution inoperative”. Article 30 of the Turkish Constitution , which guarantees freedom of the press , was printed smaller below.

With the administration, Kenan Kıran, previously news chief at Yeni Akit , became the new editor-in-chief. With the first edition published after it was taken over by the receivers, the newspaper, which was now largely produced by other employees, suddenly switched to a clear pro-Erdoğan course. Something similar had previously been observed in the Bugün and Millet newspapers .

Follow-up leaves and final end

After Zaman and Meydan were taken over by government administrators, former members of this editorial team founded new newspapers called Yarına Bakış (“A Look to Tomorrow”) and Yeni Hayat (“New Life”).

Soon after the attempted coup in July 2016 , 47 former employees of the newspaper were put out to be wanted as part of the subsequent measures . With the emergency decree of July 27, 2016, all media related to Gülen were banned and dissolved, including Zaman and Meydan and their successors Yarına Bakış and Yeni Hayat .

aftermath

At least since the attempted coup, the Gülen movement has been considered a terrorist organization ( FETÖ ) in Turkey . The first search warrant against former Zaman employees was followed by further arrests and charges. Many former employees of the newspaper were at least temporarily in custody; some have now been sentenced to prison terms for terrorist offenses (membership, support or propaganda). The previous authors Şahin Alpay, Ali Bulac, Mümtaz'er Türköne and Mustafa Ünal received between eight and ten years in prison. In further trials, former reporters and editors of the newspaper were sentenced to prison terms of up to seven and a half years. In another trial, the former head of marketing Yakup Şimşek and the former Zaman graphic artist Fevzi Yazıcı were sentenced to life imprisonment together with Ahmet Altan , Mehmet Altan , Nazlı Ilıcak and another defendant for attempting to overthrow the constitutional order. Lifetime under difficult conditions - since the abolition of the death penalty , the maximum sentence that knows Turkish law - given the many years Zaman formerly -Herausgeber Alaeddin Kaya and Hidayet Karaca, Zaman -Redakteur and then chief editor of the TV channel Samanyolu TV .

In particular, former management staff escaped arrest by fleeing abroad. The trials against the ex-editors-in-chief Ekrem Dumanlı and Abdülhamit Bilici , the former managing director Recep Uzunallı and the former Today's Zaman editor-in-chief Bülent Keneş are being conducted in the absence of the accused. The former Zaman editors Erhan Başyurt (later editor-in-chief of Bugün ) and Eyüp Can Sağlık (later editor-in-chief of Radikal ) are also considered fleeting.

Other former Zaman editors later made careers in the AKP-affiliated media and positioned themselves on the government side after the rift between Gülen and Erdoğan. These include a .: Mustafa Karaalioğlu (2007–14 editor-in-chief of Star ), Hakan Albayrak (including founding editor-in-chief of the daily Diriliş Postası ), Yusuf Ziya Cömert (editor-in-chief at Yeni Şafak 1995–2012) and Ergün Diler (editor-in-chief of Takvim since 2009 ).

Edition

In the 17th calendar week (KW) 2011 (April 25th - May 1st), Zaman sold more than a million copies per day for the first time on a weekly basis. In 2014 it reached its best mark in week 12 (mid-March) with 1,316,210 copies sold on a weekly average. In week 8, 2016, the last before the administration, the circulation was still 648,233 copies - almost twice as many as the second-placed newspaper Hürriyet , which had 354,958 copies.

However, these high official sales figures have always been controversial. When Zaman crossed the million mark for the first time, Aydın Engin pointed out that the newspaper sold 986,717 copies by subscription and only 22,434 in individual sales. However, Engin did not doubt the number - after all, Zaman was sold through a subsidiary of the Doğan media group . His conclusion: The sale of Zaman shows the high level of organization of the Gülen movement; All over the country there are people who buy several dozen or more issues and distribute them free of charge. Emin Çölaşan interpreted this high number of copies in a similar way ; the majority are collective subscriptions from wealthy Gülen supporters.

In week 10, 2016, the first after the takeover of Zaman , the number of copies sold fell to 3,668 copies a day. Tahsin Kaplan, one of the receivers, said shortly after starting his work in an interview with the pro-government newspaper Sabah that the new line could not find a subscription list and that the high sales figures were probably invented. Former employees of Zaman countered this in the follow-up newspaper Yeni Hayat , saying that the drastic drop in sales only shows that the “trustees” would destroy the newspaper.

Foreign spending

The Zaman had an independent edition in Germany and other European countries. In addition, national language editions were published in Azerbaijan , Kazakhstan , Bulgaria , Romania and the Central Asian countries as well as in the United States .

Europe edition

The Europe edition (for Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, France and Spain) was published by World Media Group AG. The headquarters of Zaman Germany was in Offenbach , in the same building as Samanyolu TV . While the print shop stayed there, the editorial center was relocated to Berlin at the beginning of 2013.

More than 120 journalists are said to have worked for Zaman Europe at times. With around 55,000 subscribers, Zaman Avrupa ("Zaman Europe") was the largest of the Turkish-language daily newspapers published in Europe. The sold circulation in Germany in the second quarter of 2014 was 22,583 copies. Every Thursday there was a longer article by Fethullah Gülen that was taken over from the Turkish edition; In addition to religious edification texts, the newspaper delivered a full journalistic program. Until the end of 2012, Zaman was only available by subscription in Germany. After that, the newspaper was also sold at many train stations.

After the takeover

After the forcible takeover of the main editorial team in March 2016, the German Zaman editorial team declared itself independent. The headquarters in Istanbul are now under state control, and they want to continue to provide the 14,000 print and 19,000 digital subscribers in Germany with their own edition, it was said from the Zaman Germany. In any case, the German editors no longer receive any texts or images from Istanbul. On the front page, the editors informed their readers in March 2016 that Zaman Germany would continue its work.

But before the end of the year, the publication was stopped. Subscribers, readers and employees were threatened, it was said that the newspaper did not want “colleagues to be harmed or our subscribers who are loyal to us,” said Süleyman Bağ, former editor-in-chief and columnist of the Europa edition . However, after the coup attempt, the circulation in Germany also fell significantly. The last issue of Zaman was published on November 30, 2016.

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nice çeyrek asırlara , report on the ceremony for the 25th anniversary, Zaman, December 2, 2011 ( Memento of December 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b Edition archive at the Medyatava media service, week from February 22nd to 28th, 2016
  3. ^ Turkish newspaper: In the capital , Frankfurter Rundschau , February 13, 2013
  4. ^ Turkey puts opposition newspaper on government line , Focus Online , March 6, 2016
  5. ↑ a b 20 Yıl Var, Bin Asra Değer , overview of the history of the newspaper, originally published in the magazine Aksiyon , republished on the website of Fethullah Gülen
  6. ↑ Ekrem Dumanlı, 14 yıl sonra Zaman Genel Yayın Yönetmenliği'nden istifa etti , T24, October 5, 2015
  7. ↑ Deniz Yücel : “A heavy blow for our democracy” , interview with Zaman editor-in-chief Abdülhamit Bilici, which was conducted by the police shortly before the editorial office was stormed, Die Welt , March 4, 2016
  8. ↑ Helen Rose Ebaugh: The Gülen Movement. An empirical study. Freiburg 2012, p. 159 ff.
  9. ^ A b Volker Siefert: A newspaper as a mouthpiece , Deutschlandfunk , April 19, 2014
  10. ↑ Frank Jansen , Ulrike Scheffer and Thomas Seibert: How powerful is Fethullah Gülen? And what is his movement doing in Germany? , Der Tagesspiegel , July 22, 2016
  11. ↑ Jürgen Gottschlich : Praise and praise Erdoğan! , taz , March 7, 2016
  12. ↑ a b Deniz Yücel : The fear of Erdogan's “dictator justice” is going on , Die Welt , March 5, 2016
  13. ↑ Zia Weise: One of the last critical voices , Zeit-Online , March 5, 2016
  14. ^ 7 Gazete, 1 Genel Yayın Yönetmeni , Bianet, June 7, 2013
  15. ↑ Boris Kálnoky : Erdogan threatens the end of relations with the West , Die Welt , December 21, 2013
  16. ↑ Kristina Dohrn: The Gülen movement. Origin and Development of a Muslim Network , From Politics and Contemporary History , February 24, 2017
  17. ↑ Elif Şafak : Farewell column in Zaman, quoted from Zaman Gazetesi'nden kimler geldi kimler geçti? , gazeteciler.com, November 2, 2009
  18. ^ Frank Nordhausen : Erdogan threatens independent media , Frankfurter Rundschau , May 26, 2015
  19. ↑ Rainer Hermann : How Erdogan silences the free press , FAZ , March 4, 2016
  20. ↑ Members of the International Newspaper Color Quality Club 2012-2014 , World Association of Newspapers, May 30, 2012
  21. ↑ World's Press Denounces Move Against Zaman in Turkey , World Association of Newspapers call for solidarity, March 4, 2016
  22. ↑ Turkish police penetrate the editorial office of the newspaper "Zaman" . In: Der Standard, March 4, 2016.
  23. ↑ a b EU condemns arrest of government critics , Zeit-Online , December 4, 2014
  24. ↑ Police storm the government-critical newspaper "Zaman" , Spiegel-Online , March 4, 2016
  25. ↑ Turkish police storms largest critical newspaper , Süddeutsche Zeitung , March 5, 2016
  26. ↑ Kayyum atanan Zaman'ın manşeti: Anayasa askıda , Diken , March 4, 2016
  27. ↑ Zaman'ın yeni genel yayın yönetmeni o isim oldu , Sabah , March 30, 2016
  28. ↑ Zaman newspaper: Seized Turkish daily 'now pro-government' , BBC , March 6, 2016
  29. ↑ Deniz Yücel : "Captured" newspapers suddenly celebrate Erdogan , Welt, October 30, 2015
  30. ↑ Kemal Hür : German edition of "Zaman": Weiter gegen Erdoğan , taz , March 10, 2016
  31. ↑ Arrest warrants against 47 “Zaman” employees , Spiegel-Online , July 27, 2016
  32. ↑ Turkey closes dozen of newspapers and 16 television channels , Spiegel-Online , July 27, 2016
  33. ↑ Long prison sentences for journalists , tagesschau.de , July 6, 2017
  34. ↑ 29 gazetecinin yargılandığı davada Atilla Taş ve Murat Aksoy'a hapis cezası , Cumhuriyet , March 8, 2018
  35. ^ Three journalists sentenced to life imprisonment , Zeit-Online , February 16, 2018
  36. ↑ Hidayet Karaca ve Alaeddin Kaya'ya ağırlaştırılmış müebbet , Diken , June 8, 2018
  37. ↑ Firari hainler , Yeni Şafak , July 15, 2018
  38. ↑ FETÖ'nün medya prensi Bugün Gazetesi Genel Yayın Yönetmeni Başyurt ByLock yazışmalarından çıktı , Akşam , January 6, 2018
  39. ↑ "FETÖ'nün altın çocuğu Eyüp Can ile katalogtan mı evlendin? " , Sabah , October 15, 2017
  40. ↑ Zaman Gazetesi'nden kimler geldi kimler geçti? , Review of Newspaper History, gazeteciler.com, November 2, 2009
  41. ↑ Edition archive at the Medyatava media service, week from April 25 to May 1, 2011
  42. ↑ Edition archive at the Medyatava media service, week from March 17th to 23rd, 2014
  43. ↑ Aydın Engin : 1 Milyonluk tiraj: Zaman , T24, May 9, 2011
  44. ↑ Basında büyük üçkağıtçılık , Sözcü , May 25, 2013
  45. ↑ Edition archive at the Medyatava media service, week from 7th - 13th March 2016
  46. ↑ "650 bin abone var ama ortada tek bir isim yok" , Sabah , March 14, 2016
  47. ↑ Kayyım, 'Zaman'ın tirajı sanal' yalanını kendisi çürüttü , Yeni Hayat , June 27, 2016
  48. ↑ Turkish newspaper "Zaman Avrupa" wants to become a little more German , Die Welt , January 21, 2013
  49. ↑ Information from IVW (details on ivw.eu ). Thereafter, the number of copies was no longer reported to the IVW.
  50. ^ Zaman editors in Germany want to continue working independently , Meedia , March 7, 2016
  51. ↑ German "Zaman" editorial team continues to work independently , Euronews .de, March 7, 2016
  52. ^ Threats against makers and readers: Turkish newspaper "Zaman" closes German edition ( memento from June 26, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), hessenschau , September 9, 2016
  53. ^ A b German edition of Gülen-near Turkish newspaper before the end , Zeit-Online , September 9, 2016
  54. ↑ Markus Sehl: Consequences of a settlement , taz , December 4, 2016