Turkish police raided opposition media

opposition media

Turkish police raided opposition media

Chief editor of the Times, Ekrem Dumanli, surrounded by his co-workers and police in civilian clothes when he left his office in Istanbul.

Turkish police have arrested at least 23 people in a raid on a newspaper and TV station which has close ties with Islamic scholars based in the United States, Fethullah Gulen.

Those arrested were accused of forming an unauthorized organization and try to seize state power.

Gulen, who is the spiritual leader Hizmet movement, is the rival Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

These arrests were made a few days after Erdogan vowed to fight the Gulen supporters.

Among those arrested was the reporter, producer, screenwriter and a police chief in eastern Turkey.

democratic reaction

The police tried to raid offices Zaman newspaper, one of the largest newspaper in Turkey on Sunday morning (14/12), but the crowd of protesters forced the police to leave the area before they managed to make arrests.

Chief editor of the newspaper, Ekrem Dumanli, send a picture of herself sitting at her desk to Twitter, saying, "The police officers were beaten back because of the democratic reaction of our friends. I was in my place and wait."

But police later returned in the afternoon and arrested him.

2 times

Employees Zaman ding posters and chanted "free press can not be silenced".

The employees and supporters of the paper posters and banners and chanted "free press can not be silenced" when the police raided the office of the newspaper. (BBC)