Turkey launches crackdown on opposition, announced on Twitter by whistle-blower
escenic

      
       Turkish police on Sunday launched a series of arrests of journalists and other media workers – including the editor of the country’s biggest-selling daily paper – as a purge of opponents of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan worsened.
      
      
       The arrest of Ekrem Dumanli, the editor-in-chief of Zaman newspaper, was broadcast live on television.
      
      
       Among the others seized were a soap opera scriptwriter and other television drama staff; the head of a company which owns a major television channel; and former and current senior policemen.
      
      
       The European Union condemned the actions in an unusually strongly worded statement on Sunday night.
      
      
       “The police raids and arrests of a number of journalists and media representatives in Turkey today are incompatible with the freedom of media, which is a core principle of democracy,” said Federica Mogherini, EU foreign policy chief, and Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn in a joint statement.
      
      
       “This operation goes against the European values and standards Turkey aspires to be part of,” they said.
      
      
       The arrests follow a long campaign against affiliates of an exiled Turkish religious leader, Fetullah Gulen, who lives in the United States but whose movement, known as Hizmet, used to run schools across the country and still has widespread support.
      
      
       Until the two men fell out, Mr Gulen was an ally of Mr Erdogan, who was prime minister for ten years before being elected president this year and remains Turkey’s most powerful politician.
      
      
       The arrests represent a major embarrassment to the West and the United States. Turkey remains a member of Nato, and is a key intermediary on Middle East policy, particularly on Syria, whose Assad regime Mr Erdogan fiercely opposes.
      
      
       Since Mr Erdogan first rose to power, Turkey has become the biggest jailer of journalists in the world, according to freedom of speech groups. He has also pushed an increasingly Islamist agenda.
      
      
       A year ago, a major corruption probe against Mr Erdogan’s son and a number of his ministers triggered a massive backlash from the authorities, who claimed it was orchestrated by Hizmet followers in the police and the judiciary.
      
      
       Mr Erdogan ordered the sacking of hundreds of police and prosecutors.
      
      
       The most recent crackdown was alerted in advance on social media, and a crowd had gathered around the offices of Zaman in Istanbul as the police moved in. At first they prevented the police entering, but later officers returned and led Mr Dumanli away.
      
      
       As he went, he said: “Let those who have committed a crime be scared. We are not scared.”
      
      
       The television drama producers and scriptwriter were said to have worked on soap operas set in the Kurdish region of Turkey and in an anti-terrorism squad.
      
      
       On Friday, Mr Erdogan had warned that he would follow supporters of Mr Gulen, whom he accuses of running a “parallel state” inside the country, “into their lairs”.
      
      
       “We are not just faced with a simple network, but one which is a pawn of evil forces at home and abroad,” he said. “Whoever is beside them and behind them, we will bring down this network and bring it to account.”
      
      
       The prosecuting authorities said warrants had been issued for 31 people in total. A statement said: “The detentions have been ordered in order to take their testimonies on charges of founding and directing an armed terror organisation, being a member of this organisation, and engaging in forgery and slander.”
      
      
       Ahmet Davutoglu, the loyalist former foreign minister who replaced Mr Erdogan as prime minister, accused those arrested of “undemocratic behaviour”.
      
      
       However, the leader of the opposition, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, described the operation as a “coup”.
      
      
       The presidential election campaign which saw Mr Erdogan elected was dominated by claims that he was seeking ever more authoritarian powers. He has also given fuller vein to his conservative social views.
      
      
       “Our religion has defined a position for women: motherhood,” he said last month, in a speech that particularly angered opponents who believe his “soft Islamist” AK Party is destroying Turkey’s secular political values.
      
      
       “Some people can understand this, while others can’t.
      
      
       “You cannot explain this to feminists because they don’t accept the concept of motherhood.”
      
     