Ahval is an Emirati-funded online

news website An online newspaper (or electronic news or electronic news publication) is the online version of a newspaper, either as a stand-alone publication or as the online version of a printed periodical. Going online created more opportunities for newspa ...

that solely reports on

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

. The site was launched in 2017. Turkish journalist

Yavuz Baydar Yavuz Baydar is the Editor-in-Chief of Ahval, an online news site published in English, Turkish and Arabic. Baydar is a Turkish journalist, blogger and an activist for media freedom and independence. Baydar has lived outside Turkey since the 20 ...

is the current editor-in-chief. The name ''Ahval'' means "events" and is a Turkish Arabism derivation from "ahwal". In February 2018, Ahval was blocked by the Turkish government for users in Turkey. In an interview with observatoireturquie.fr, Baydar stated that the site has 230,000 daily visitors. Talking to German newspaper '' Süddeutsche Zeitung'', Baydar said that the creation of Ahval aimed "to fill a gap caused by media bans and self-censorship in Turkey."

Ownership

The website is owned by Ahval News Ltd, which is based in

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

. According to Qantara.de Ahval are financially supported by London media organisation "Al Arab", who are subsidized by the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at t ...

. Qantara criticised Ahval's Arabic language service for not being as neutral as its English language version. Baydar responded to claims about Ahval's funding by an undemocratic regime by saying "whatever your financier, what matters is independence. When I worked in England, at the BBC World Service, it was never a problem for me to have this institution partially funded by the London government." The Turkish government claims that Ahval is used as a counter-propaganda tool against Turkey’s president.

Criticism

Alleged links to Gülen movement

Ahval has been accused by Turkey of having links to the

Gülen movement The Gülen movement ( tr, Gülen hareketi), referred to by its participants as Hizmet ("service") or Cemaat ("community") and since 2016 by the Government of Turkey as FETÖ ("Fethullahist Terrorist Organisation" or, more commonly, "Fethullah T ...

, which Turkey sees as a terrorist organization and blames it for the failed coup attempt in 2016. Editor-in-chief Yavuz Baydar, who left Turkey following the coup attempt in 2016, had prosecution cases opened against him in Turkey in 2016 on charges of ties to the Gülen movement. In October 2018, the 27th High Criminal Court in

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

reportedly wanted Ilhan Tanır to be charged along with Can Dündar. Tanir, formerly head of Ahval's English desk, and ''

Cumhuriyet ''Cumhuriyet'' (; English: " Republic") is the oldest up-market Turkish daily newspaper. It has been described as "the most important independent public interest newspaper in contemporary Turkey". The newspaper was awarded the ''Freedom of Pr ...

''s Washington correspondent at the time, denies these links. Editor Ergun Babahan is also accused of being a follower of

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, Isl ...

. Yavuz Baydar denies that the site has any affiliation with Gülen. He states that "We are not the mouthpiece of any interest group nor are we part of any activist movement." Ahval has published critical commentary on Gülen's movement by authors like Nick Ashdown and Gökhan Bacık. Bacık had left the Gülen movement and "started writing critical and highly informative pieces on both the Gülen movement and Islamic conservatism." Turkish journalist Cengiz Candar, writing for al-Monitor, noted that "Police raids of residences have targeted many linked to the failed coup. But to associate Baydar with the coup is impossible."

Bias in Arabic version

The Arabic version of Ahval is criticized for not demonstrating political neutrality on topics regarded as sensitive subjects by the regimes in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

and

such as the Muslim Brotherhood. An example is a piece by ''

Al-Arab ''Al-Arab'' or ''Alarab'' ( ar, العرب meaning ''The Arabs'') is a pan-Arab newspaper published from London, England, and sold in a number of countries. History and profile The paper was launched in London on 1 June 1977, as a secular pan ...

'' journalist Hisham al-Nagar which did not appear in the English and Turkish versions. In the article, the Egyptian journalist tried to associate President Erdogan with Islamist terrorism.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahval Publications established in 2017 Turkish news websites