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''Zaman'' (, literally "time" or "era"), sometimes stylized as ZAMAN, was a daily newspaper in
Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
. ''Zaman'' was a major, high-circulation daily before government seizure on 4 March 2016 (the circulation was around 650,000 as of February 2016). It was founded in 1986 and was the first Turkish daily to go online in 1995. It contained national (Turkish), international, business, and other news. It also had many regular columnists covering current affairs, interviews, and a culture section. The newspaper originally supported the
Justice and Development Party Justice and Development Party may refer to several political parties, the best-known ones being: * Justice and Development Party (Morocco) * Justice and Development Party (Turkey) Justice and Development Party may also refer to: * Justice and Dev ...
(AKP), but became increasingly critical of that party and its leader, Turkish president and former prime minister
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the List of presidents of Turkey, 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as Lis ...
, particularly after the AKP closed the 2013 December investigation into corruption. On 4 March 2016, in what activists and international media groups criticized as another blow to
press freedom in Turkey Censorship in Turkey is regulated by domestic and international legislation, the latter (in theory) taking precedence over domestic law, according to Article 90 of the Constitution of Turkey (so amended in 2004). Despite legal provisions, fr ...
, control of the newspaper was seized by the government. The takeover was motivated by the newspaper's ties to the Hizmet movement of Turkish cleric
Fethullah Gülen Muhammed Fethullah Gülen (born 27 April 1941) is a Turkish Islamic scholar, preacher, and a one-time opinion leader, as de facto leader of the Gülen movement. Gülen is designated an influential neo-Ottomanist, Anatolian panethnicist, Isla ...
, which the government accuses of attempting to establish a
parallel state The "parallel state" is a term coined by American historian Robert Paxton to describe a collection of organizations or institutions that are state-like in their organization, management and structure, but are not officially part of the legitimate ...
in Turkey. The newspaper was closed by the decree No. 668 which was published in the Official Gazette on 27 July 2016.


Editions

''Zaman'' was an
Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
-based daily paper that also prints special international editions for some other countries. It was printed in 11 countries and distributed in 35 countries. In addition to four locations in Turkey, regional editions were printed and distributed in
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
,
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
,
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
,
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
,
Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
,
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
,
Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the east. ...
, Macedonia,
Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...
, and the US. Zaman bureaus and correspondents are located in major world capitals and cities like
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
,
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
,
Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
,
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
,
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
,
Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...
,
Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
,
Ashgabat Ashgabat or Asgabat ( tk, Aşgabat, ; fa, عشق‌آباد, translit='Ešqābād, formerly named Poltoratsk ( rus, Полтора́цк, p=pəltɐˈratsk) between 1919 and 1927), is the capital and the largest city of Turkmenistan. It lies ...
,
Tashkent Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of ...
, and
Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
. Special international editions were distributed in the native alphabets and languages of the countries they are published. ''Zaman'' has prints in 10 different languages including
Kyrgyz Kyrgyz, Kirghiz or Kyrgyzstani may refer to: * Someone or something related to Kyrgyzstan *Kyrgyz people *Kyrgyz national games *Kyrgyz language *Kyrgyz culture *Kyrgyz cuisine *Yenisei Kirghiz *The Fuyü Gïrgïs language in Northeastern China ...
,
Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...
,
Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...
,
Azeri Azerbaijanis (; az, Azərbaycanlılar, ), Azeris ( az, Azərilər, ), or Azerbaijani Turks ( az, Azərbaycan Türkləri, ) are a Turkic peoples, Turkic people living mainly in Azerbaijan (Iran), northwestern Iran and the Azerbaijan, Republi ...
, Uzbek, Turkmen and Kazakh. Originally also having an
English-language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
edition, since 16 January 2007, that role was taken over by the English-language daily newspaper ''
Today's Zaman ''Today's Zaman'' (Zaman is Turkish for 'time' or 'age') was an English-language daily newspaper based in Turkey. Established on 17 January 2007, it was the English-language edition of the Turkish daily '' Zaman.'' ''Today's Zaman'' included dom ...
''. ''Zaman'' headquarters in Istanbul were supported by news bureaus in Ashgabat, Baku, Brussels, Bucharest, Frankfurt, Moscow, New York, and Washington, D.C. ''Zaman'' also appeared to have a large network of foreign journalists, especially in
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
and
Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
.


Current position and awards

As of 2008 its circulation was about 890,000, the highest in Turkey. The total paid circulation of ''Zaman'' was verified by an independent Media Auditing company,
BPA Worldwide BPA Worldwide is a US-based company that provides independent, third-party audits of audience claims of business-to-business and consumer media and events. Its membership includes magaziness, newspapers, web sites, events, email newsletters, digit ...
, after accusations that the newspaper was being handed out freely to gain market share. The audit report was released in March 2007, revealing that Zaman' circulation was 609,865 between Monday–Saturday, and 678,027 on Sundays, without any non-paid circulation. BPA audit figures also showed that ''Zaman'' had one of the largest subscriber bases of a national newspaper in Europe. In May 2011, ''Zaman'' surpassed its 1 million subscription target. However some newspapers questioned the quality of the subscriptions, claiming that supporters of the paper's outlook had purchased multiple subscriptions of the newspaper in order to artificially inflate its circulation. The circulation of ''Zaman'' as of January 2014 was more than 1 million, while other newspapers saw mixed results between increase and decrease in circulation. ''Zaman'' was awarded several times for its design, including Society for News Design (SND). Zaman's SND awards tally includes three in 2003, five in 2004, 2005, 2006, twenty in 2007, forty-two in 2008, and twenty-three in 2009.


Staff


Editors-in-chief

When in March 2016 the newspaper was taken over by Turkish authorities,
Abdülhamit Bilici Abdülhamit Bilici (born 1970 in Istanbul) is a Turkish journalist and media executive. Bilici was once one of the prominent and influential media figures in Turkey, as the last editor-in-chief of '' Zaman'', the country’s most widely circulate ...
, who had been editor-in-chief since October 2015, was deposed. * 2001 – October 2015: Ekrem Dumanlı * October 2015 – 5 March 2016:
Abdülhamit Bilici Abdülhamit Bilici (born 1970 in Istanbul) is a Turkish journalist and media executive. Bilici was once one of the prominent and influential media figures in Turkey, as the last editor-in-chief of '' Zaman'', the country’s most widely circulate ...


Columnists

The newspaper has attracted number of famous columnists both from liberal and conservative wings of thought. A columnist had to resign from the newspaper on 3 December 2013 due to non-compliance with editorial line of opposing to the ruling party of Turkey and pressure from editors of the newspaper. The incident caused criticism of the newspaper as standing against freedom of expression.


Online version

''Zaman'' was the first Turkish newspaper to set up an online version, in 1995. Since then, the website has gone through several redesigns, the latest at the end of 2010, and is now positioned as a news portal.


December 2014 crackdown

On 14 December 2014, Turkish police arrested more than two dozen senior journalists and media executives on charges of "forming, leading and being a member of an armed terrorist organization." Among those detained was the editor-in-chief of ''Zaman'', Ekrem Dumanli. Police arriving at 7.30 a.m. at the newspaper's office were greeted by scores of protesters shouting "a free media cannot be silenced." They had mounted a vigil after tweets from "Fuatavni"—a reliable but anonymous source—had warned of the raid. Police retreated only to reappear in the afternoon when Dumanli gave himself up voluntarily. A statement by the
US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...
drawing attention to raids against media outlets "openly critical of the current Turkish government", cautioned Turkey not to violate its "own democratic foundations". EU foreign affairs chief
Federica Mogherini Federica Mogherini (; born 16 June 1973) is an Italian politician who served as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019. She previously served as I ...
and EU Enlargement Commissioner
Johannes Hahn Johannes Hahn (born 2 December 1957) is an Austrian politician who has served as European Commissioner for Budget and Administration under Ursula von der Leyen since 1 December 2019. He previously served as European Commissioner for European Ne ...
said that the arrests went "against European values" and "are incompatible with the freedom of media, which is a core principle of democracy". On 19 December 2014, a court ordered that Dumanlı and seven others be released due to lack of evidence. Thousands gathered outside Çağlayan Courthouse in İstanbul to show support for the detained journalists and police officials. While crowds celebrated the release of Dumanlı in the courtyard of the courthouse, they protested the arrest order for
Samanyolu TV Samanyolu TV was an international Turkish language TV station with its headquarters in Istanbul. Samanyolu TV was previously owned by Yayıncılık A.Ş. Yayıncılık A.Ş. is a media company that operates radio and television broadcasting, pub ...
General Manager Hidayet Karaca and former police chiefs Tufan Ergüder, Ertan Erçıktı and Mustafa Kılıçaslan.


March 2016 government takeover

On 4 March 2016, the Turkish government seized control of ''Zaman''. The government takeover occurred after a court order that was widely criticized by ''Zaman'' newspaper staff. After the takeover, the ''Zaman'' website was closed for two days with a message stating that the site was being updated. All archived news and content became inaccessible, with some claiming all the data had been wiped. Two days later, the first government-controlled edition appeared, with no mention of the events during its seizure and with its front page carrying a series of pro-government articles and a picture of a smiling president Erdogan.


See also

*
Abdülhamit Bilici Abdülhamit Bilici (born 1970 in Istanbul) is a Turkish journalist and media executive. Bilici was once one of the prominent and influential media figures in Turkey, as the last editor-in-chief of '' Zaman'', the country’s most widely circulate ...
*
Media freedom in Turkey Censorship in Turkey is regulated by domestic and international legislation, the latter (in theory) taking precedence over domestic law, according to Article 90 of the Constitution of Turkey (so amended in 2004). Despite legal provisions, fr ...
* * Turkey's media purge after the failed July 2016 coup d'état


References


External links

*
Zaman Austria

Zaman Netherlands
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zaman Newspapers published in Istanbul Turkish-language newspapers Defunct newspapers published in Turkey Conservatism in Turkey 1986 establishments in Turkey Newspapers established in 1986 Internet properties established in 1995 Mass media shut down in the 2016 Turkish purges Publications disestablished in 2016 Daily newspapers published in Turkey