Turkish ‘newspapers’ blocked after TV raids

Polls unlikely to solve uncertainty

ISTANBUL, Oct 29, (Agencies): Two Turkish newspapers critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan failed to appear on Thursday, a day after riot police stormed their sister television stations and forced them off air.

The action has provoked alarm among Turkey’s Western allies and global rights groups over the state of media freedom just days before the country’s most crucial election in years.

Riot police firing tear gas and water cannon stormed the Istanbul offices of two television stations linked to a bitter Erdogan rival and pulled the plug Wednesday, triggering brawls with staff and demonstrations in Istanbul.

The spectacular raids targeted the media operations of the multi-billion dollar Kozi-Ipek conglomerate, which is accused of financing US-exiled preacher Fethullah Gulen, a one-time Erdogan ally turned arch-foe.

The group’s two stations, Bugun TV and KanalTurk, remain off air while its two newspapers, Bugun and Millet, were prevented from appearing Thursday after court-appointed administrators moved in.

Millet published the front page of what would have been its Thursday edition on Twitter with a photograph of a bloodied press card and the headline “A bloody putsch”.

Bugun editor-in-chief Erhan Basyurt, who was sacked along with two reporters, said they were initially informed there were technical problems preventing the paper from being printed.

Davutoglu

Ban “Then they told us we could not print, that there was a written ban.”

Critics accuse the government of trying to quash dissent ahead of Sunday’s vote, which opinion polls say is unlikely to deliver Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) the clear victory it so desperately desires.

“The government has shown today what will happen to this country if we do not put a halt to this oppression on Sunday,” Eren Erdem, a lawmaker with the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), said on Twitter.

Turkey is holding its second election in five months after the AKP, which has dominated for 13 years, lost its majority in a stunning election setback in June.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu failed over the subsequent weeks to form a coalition, forcing a new election, but opinion polls are predicting little change from the June outcome.

As extremist violence and political uncertainty cast a shadow over Turkey, voters are look- ing for Sunday’s parliamentary election to usher in stability. But in a deeply polarized country, the most likely result is more confusion.

The election is a redo of June elections in which the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, stunningly lost its majority. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for new elections after Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu failed to form a coalition with any of the three opposition parties represented in parliament.

The ballot comes at a sensitive time for Turkey, a key Western ally that has major issues to navigate: It faces rising instability in neighboring Syria and Iraq and a refugee crisis that is spilling into Europe. There are also doubts about the country’s once-booming economy — concerns exasperated by political deadlock and violence damaging the key tourism sector.

Expecting With analysts expecting a similar inconclusive result in Sunday’s election, the key question is whether Erdogan would allow his party to form a coalition. Doing so would effectively force Erdogan to relinquish his iron grip on power in Turkey.

There is a small chance that he won’t have to. In the June elections, AKP won just over 40 percent of votes, falling 18 seats short of the 276 needed for an outright majority. AKP is now hoping it can cover the distance and eke out a slight majority by targeting some of the constituencies that it lost narrowly.

The June election showed that Erdogan’s biggest problem is the rise of the main Kurdish party, or HDP. For the first time, HDP easily cleared the 10 percent threshold needed for representation as a party in parliament, taking seats mostly at AKP’s expense.

In the immediate aftermath of the election, the worst violence in years broke out in Turkey between Kurdish militants and government authorities. Two massive suicide bombings at pro-Kurdish gatherings apparently carried out by an Islamic State group cell severely heightened tensions.

Kurds charge that the government failed to secure the events, while Erdogan and other AKP leaders alleged — without offering evidence — that the bombings were planned by a “cocktail” of Turkish enemies that included Islamist IS and the staunchly secular Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

In the violence, one of Erdogan’s most notable accomplishments — peace talks with the PKK to end decades of violence and integrate the Kurdish southeast — has come undone. Erdogan has lashed out at the HDP, calling it the political arm of the PKK, which Turkey and most Western countries consider a terrorist organization. The election could give a signal on the direction of the peace process.