Turkey is holding a general election on Sunday not only at a time when critical media outlets are under heavy government pressure, but also when there are significant fears by the opposition about possible electoral fraud at the ballot box.
Just days before the pivotal election, partisan trustees were appointed to take over the management of Koza İpek Holding, which also owns some critical media outlets, based on a controversial court order at the beginning of the week.
The move has been blasted by the opposition, the Turkish Bar Association and media organizations alike as an unlawful seizure and a coup against the rule of law.
“This is an outright [illegal] seizure by force,” Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Deputy Chairman Celal Adan told Sunday's Zaman, arguing the takeover is aimed at preventing the public from receiving information ahead of the election from outlets that are not under government control.
There are rumors circulating that the interim ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) may attempt to rig ballot boxes on Nov. 1 to be able to come to power alone.
In the general election on June 7, the AK Party got 258 deputies in Parliament by receiving 41 percent of the vote. It needs an additional 18 deputies, which would give it an absolute majority in Parliament, to come to power alone.
Opposition concerned about vote rigging
Opposition parties have been alarmed by claims that the results of the Sunday election could be manipulated.
Their concerns were reinforced by a government whistleblower who tweets under the pseudonym Fuat Avni. In some of his latest tweets, Fuat Avni argued government figures are holding regular meetings on election fraud and the Anadolu news agency will play a central role by announcing public support as high as 55 percent for the AK Party on the night of the election.
The Cihan news agency, the only other agency that reports on ballot box results all across Turkey, will be subjected to cyber attacks to prevent it from releasing the results of the ballot box, Fuat Avni also claimed.
Potential election fraud also includes manipulating the computer-based elector record system (SEÇSİS). The Supreme Election Board (YSK), however, says the system is reliable.
Despite such assurances, the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), the MHP and the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) have installed similar systems in their party headquarters as a precaution.
Erdal Aksünger, a chief adviser to the CHP chair, recently told Sunday's Zaman the party will compare the ballot box results with the data sent by the party's members to the CHP headquarters on election night.
The main opposition CHP is being particularly careful to develop ways to prevent possible election fraud. The main opposition party is concerned because since his election to office President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has regularly met with muhtars, the lowest-level local administrators including village headmen.
“This gives the impression of a possible election fraud that could involve them,” Erdal Aksünger, a chief adviser to the CHP chair, recently told Sunday's Zaman.
Noting that the voting cards of those who are not considering casting their votes in the election are kept by these local administrators, Aksünger said: “We have doubts [over] what [might] happen to these certificates. We are taking some measures on this matter, but we also believe the YSK should take strong measures to prevent systematic election fraud.”
‘672,000 people missing from voter lists'
Aksünger said at the beginning of the week the names of around 672,000 people who cast their votes in the June election are missing from the voter lists prepared for the Nov. 1 election.
According to Aksünger, in addition to the approximately 672,000 missing names, about 422,000 new names that did not appear on the June 7 election list have been added to the current voter lists.
Noting that perhaps some 200,000 people may have died since the June election, Aksünger said: “But there are still [at least] 472,000 others unaccounted for. On the other hand, there are 422,000 additional voters on the lists of the Nov. 1 election. This is interesting and we believe this is something that needs to be investigated for the sake of election security.”
Given that the AK Party narrowly lost a seat in the June election in some provinces but won some seats in the same manner in other provinces, the mobility of voters is unsettling.
For instance, in Amasya, which is represented by three deputies in Parliament, the MHP lost one seat to the AK Party by only 681 votes.
The MHP also lost three seats to the AK Party in the provinces of Malatya, Çankırı and Çorum by garnering approximately 1,500 fewer votes. Similarly, in Ankara's second constituency, the provinces of Kırklareli, Karaman, Şanlıurfa and Düzce, the AK Party beat the MHP by margins ranging from 5,000 to 8,000 votes.
The MHP also has concerns about election security. MHP Deputy Chair Semih Yalçın recently told Sunday's Zaman, “We are taking measures because we have not ruled out the possibility that they [AK Party] may commit election fraud.”
Bar association says seizure on shaky legal ground
The takeover of critical media outlets owned by the İpek Media Group was denounced as illegal by the Turkish Bar Association (TBB).
TTB head Metin Feyzioğlu said on Wednesday when the police raided the İstanbul headquarters of the media group that the court's decision does not have legal grounds.
In a written statement, Feyzioğlu said: “We see the decision to appoint trustees to the Koza İpek group was made despite the fact that the conditions set by Article 133 of the Criminal Code of Procedures [CMK] were not met. It is not understood why there was a need to assign trustees to collect evidence to show [the culpability of company]. … This appointment of trustees violates many basic rights and liberties, such as the right to property and freedom of the press.”
Article 30 of the Constitution says: “A printing house and its annexes, duly established as a press enterprise under law, and press equipment shall not be seized, confiscated or barred from operation on the grounds of having been used in a crime."
According to the MHP's Adan, the seizure of critical media outlets indicates the AK Party is worried that it will fail in the election.
The election is vitally important for the future of democracy in Turkey as it is widely perceived as an election between an authoritarian government bordering on fascism by the Islamist AK Party and democracy.
It is widely feared the interim ruling AK Party, which has been in power since the end of 2002, may resort to any means necessary to win the election and become more authoritarian, as it has been strongly beset by sweeping allegations of widespread corruption and illegal activities such as providing weapons to radical rebel groups in Syria.
“No matter what they do, they [AK Party] will lose power on Nov. 1 and will be called to account before law for the unlawfulness, the unjust seizure,” the MHP's Adan noted.
Many in Turkey are concerned the government crackdown on critical and independent media has reached such a point that takeovers will soon extend to other media groups.
Government whistleblower Fuat Avni, whose earlier prophecies have been found to be true, claimed back in August Koza İpek and later the Doğan Media Group would be seized by the government.
CHP deputy: 'Despotic regimes silence critical media'
The whistleblower who tweets under the pseudonym Fuat Avni also claimed in the past week that President Erdoğan is preparing a “massive” crackdown on critical media outlets following Sunday's election.
Claiming that the seizure of İpek Media Group was directly orchestrated by Erdoğan, the whistleblower said: “[Erdoğan] is in the process of materializing his long-planned coup on media outlets. He is creating a state within the state. The raid on the İpek Media Group will continue. Sözcü, Cumhuriyet and Doğan media are the next targets.”
According to Mahmut Tanal, a deputy of the main opposition CHP, the government-backed seizure is aimed at preventing the public from being informed about reports that would put the government in trouble.
In remarks to Sunday's Zaman, Tanal, who is a lawyer by profession, said, “The most characteristic feature of despotic regimes is the silencing of the [critical] media.”
The takeover of the holding was carried out based on an expert's opinion which said there was no fault in the accounting reports of the holding. The prosecutor argued, in his notice, that it is dubious that a holding has such clean accounting practices given that it is almost impossible in Turkey to achieve such a thing.
The trustees appointed to manage the critical media outlets -- which include Bugün and Kanaltürk television channels and Bugün and Millet dailies -- are either members of the AK Party, relatives of AK Party members or people who formerly worked for pro-government media groups.
According to the relevant law, trustees are required to be independent and impartial figures.
Both the TV stations were taken off air on Wednesday. The editors-in-chief of the Bugün news channel and the Bugün daily -- Tarık Toros and Erhan Başyurt, respectively -- as well as some reporters working for İpek Media Group were dismissed following the seizure carried out by the use of police force.
Riot police stormed the headquarters of Koza İpek media outlets in İstanbul shortly after dawn on Wednesday, with journalists from the paper making fruitless efforts to prevent them from entering the building and eventually cutting the broadcast.
The seizure is seen by many as an attempt to silence critical media and opposition figures' voices.
The seizure is seen by many as an attempt to silence critical media and opposition figures' voices.
Taking over critical media outlets just before the election will not only prevent the opposition parties from communicating their messages but also give a distinct advantage to the AK Party, which already enjoys the support of dozens of pro-government media outlets.
Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) member İsmet Demirdöğen told Bugün TV shortly before it was taken off air that the law does not allow police to enter the premises of a company placed in guardianship.
“This is out of the question. … The Constitution only allows the trustees to enter the building but not to intervene in broadcasting,” he said.
The remaining media outlets that are critical and independent of the government line are also under risk of unlawful seizure. Just like Koza İpek, the Doğan and Feza media groups are currently facing anti-terror probes through government-backed judicial investigations.
Just a day after the court's decision to appoint trustees, an AK Party deputy, Aydın Ünal, threatened the remaining critical media outlets, saying they would also be brought to account after Sunday's election.
After accusing the critical media of hate crimes and discrimination, Ünal said, speaking on the pro-government television station A Haber: “We are not in a really comfortable environment right now. However, after the Nov. 1 election, they [critical media outlets] will all be brought to account.”
Ünal is a former top adviser to President Erdoğan, who headed AK Party governments for years before being elected president last year.
'Silencing opposition is fascism'
According to Ruhsar Demirel, another MHP deputy chairman, the seizure by force of the media outlets is evidence enough of the country's transition into fascism from authoritarianism.
Noting that the move aims, ahead of the election, to deprive the opposition of channels by which it can communicate its message to the public, Demirel told Sunday's Zaman, “Silencing the opposition is fascism.”
She added that concerns about election security are at an all-time high given such unprecedented pressure over the media.
The Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen's Association (TÜSİAD) expressed concerns about arbitrariness in the takeover of the critical media outlets in a statement, saying, “The society should be persuaded that the measures taken [in the Koza İpek probe] are proportionate and not arbitrary.”
TÜSİAD also warned that doubts over the correctness of a judicial decision such as appointing trustees to a company would deal a severe blow to the business and investment environment in the country.
A media mogul, Aydın Doğan, owner of Doğan Media Group, said at the beginning of October that he has never witnessed during his 40 years in the sector the kind of pressure the media is faced with today.
“I witnessed periods of martial law as well as many other [tense] times of pressure on the media. However, I have never seen this much pressure put on journalists,” Doğan told reporters following a visit to a Hürriyet daily columnist who had shortly before been beaten by some figures linked with the AK Party.
Ahmet Hakan of the Hürriyet daily, which is part of the Doğan media, was attacked after a pro-government columnist, Cem Küçük of the Star daily, issued death threats to Coşkun over his critical comments on Erdoğan and the government.
Küçük targeted Coşkun, saying, “We can smash you like a fly.”
Freedom House, a leading watchdog organization dedicated to the expansion of freedom and democracy around the world, denounced the takeover of a large media group in what it said was a "politically motivated" move, highlighting that the latest crackdown damages the fairness of the upcoming parliamentary election. "The government's seizure of Koza İpek undermines the fairness of the Nov. 1 parliamentary elections,” Robert Herman, vice president for international programs at Freedom House, said in a statement.
In yet another instance of pressure over the critical media, seven critical television channels were recently dropped from TV streaming platforms, muffling the opposition's voice.
The state-owned Turkish Satellite Communications Company (Türksat) also recently notified Irmak TV, Bugün TV and Kanaltürk, known for their critical stance against the government, that their contracts would not be renewed as of November.
The channels were told to remove their platforms from Türksat's infrastructure by the end of the last month.
Türksat's move to drop Irmak TV, Bugün TV and Kanaltürk is the latest instance of TV streaming platforms removing channels critical of the government and means that viewers will not be able to tune in to the channels on any platform, with the exception of the channels' own online streaming applications.
Similarly, Digiturk, Turkcell TV+, Tivibu, Teledünya and Kablo TV removed last month seven TV channels critical of the government, namely Bugün TV, Mehtap TV, Kanaltürk, Samanyolu TV, S Haber, Irmak TV and Yumurcak TV from their services.
The removal came based on an order from the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office on the suspicion that the TV channels support a terrorist organization.
The removed TV channels are close to the faith-based Gülen movement, inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, against which the government and President Erdoğan has been conducting a large-scale smear campaign since the graft probes of December 2013.
A report made public by the İstanbul Institute's Center of Media and Communication Studies in May also highlighted the fact that government pressure on the media over the past several years has become more intense than ever.
In December 2014, in a government-led crackdown against the Zaman daily and the Samanyolu television channel, daily's then editor-in-chief Ekrem Dumanlı and the TV channel's general manager Hidayet Karaca were detained on charges of establishing and leading a terrorist organization.
Some soap opera scriptwriters and police officers were also detained in the operation on Dec. 14, 2013.
Despite the lack of any solid evidence, Karaca and three police officers have remained, behind bars since then, while Dumanlı, the script writers and the producers of soap opera "Sungurlar" were released pending trial.
Both Zaman and Samanyolu are also critical media outlets that are close to Gülen, whose teachings are an inspiration for millions of people.
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