I ended the article I wrote last week, following İzmir Mayor Cemil Tugay’s joining the AKP, with the following sentence:
“Independent media and social media outlets not aligned with the government have already been shut down, and municipalities are being taken over one by one. It seems that the closure of Parliament is not far off either.”
I based this assessment not only on current developments but also on MHP leader Bahçeli’s explanation of his party’s political formula for the next five-year period in the following words: “Erdoğan in the executive, the Nationalist Movement Party in the legislature, the People’s Alliance in Turkey, and the Turkish Party in the world.”
We woke up on the morning of Wednesday, October 14, to the news that a government-appointed trustee had been assigned to Halk TV, one of the few news channels that can be watched nationwide in Turkey and that is not pro-government.
Halk TV is a widely watched news channel that extensively covers the pressures exerted by the government, particularly on the CHP (and subsequently the New Party), and gives the opposition a platform to make its voice heard.
The appointment of a trustee to this channel on the grounds of an investigation targeting its owner, and the subsequent transfer of the company to the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF), is undoubtedly another blackout imposed on press freedom.
And at precisely what moment? Just as the fund scandal has begun to overwhelm the AKP, just as New Party leader Özgür Özel has said that other figures close to the AKP are also implicated in the scandal, just as Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who has been held in prison for more than a year, has begun presenting his defense, and just as the T24 website has been shut down and numerous social media accounts have been blocked. (Let us recall that in recent days, Amnesty International issued a joint statement with 20 human rights and press freedom organizations, calling on social media platforms, including X and Meta, to resist Turkish court orders blocking access to hundreds of accounts belonging to journalists and activists. It also called on the Turkish authorities to stop issuing such blocking orders that violate freedom of expression.)
Returning to the issue of appointment of a trustee to Halk TV, can we really say that this move has nothing to do with all these developments? Clearly, it does. However, more broadly, it is also connected to the government’s further intensification of pressure on society.
The government has declared 2028 an election year. Formulas that could allow Erdoğan to run for office again are being considered. I discussed these in last week’s article.
Nevertheless, even if Erdoğan is able to run, a “victory” in the election is by no means guaranteed.
Even before the fund scandal emerged, the economy was in a very bad state. It still is. The scandal that has now been added to the picture appears to have caused unease even among AKP voters. How could it not? While people are struggling to make ends meet, it is becoming clear that a “system” in which millions change hands has been operating in plain sight.
On the other hand, the government can hardly be said to be in a strong position when it comes to persuading society about the “peace process” it is conducting with İmralı. Apart from nationalist and ultra-nationalist circles that would oppose such a process in any case, it is difficult to say that even AKP and MHP voters understand what is going on.
Consequently, the AKP and MHP will head into the election under quite difficult circumstances. One might argue that there is still a long way to go before 2028 and that even a week is a long time in politics. Yes, many balances could shift over the course of this year, but it seems unlikely that the current circumstances will change in the government’s favor.
In this context, it is probably not difficult—and sadly so—to foresee the following: Pressure on independent and opposition media is likely to intensify further.
Personally, we are even struggling to protect our own social media accounts. Dozens of accounts are blocked every day, and appeals yield no results.
Let us end this article with a message of solidarity with T24, Halk TV, and all media workers whom the authorities seek to silence. As Halk TV employees put it: “This is a day recorded in the history of journalism. A day that has been recorded in our personal histories, too. Together with our colleagues here, we did everything we could. We do not know what will happen next or on which platform. But history will record all of this.”
