Erdo?an's 'silence the opponents' campaign has been launched

A comprehensive police raid on one of Turkey?s top conglomerates, Koza ?pek Holding, which owns opposition media outlets, television channels Bugün TV and Kanaltürk and newspapers Bugün and Millet, came only two months before the early elections that will take place on Nov. 1. 

Koza ?pek Holding is believed to be linked with the Fethullah Gülen community, often called the ?parallel state,? which was designated a terrorist organization by the government. Its media organs have been accused of producing propaganda for the organization as well as of providing it with financial assistance. 

This move, however, is regarded by the oppositional parties and independent media as an attempt to silence government opponents in the wake of snap polls, believed to be the Justice and Development Party?s (AKP) last effort to regain the single-party government it lost in the June election. There are concerns the raid will be expanded to other oppositional and independent media outlets on charges of supporting terrorist organizations. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an earlier threatened these media organizations, reiterating his determination to defeat the ?parallel state? and its sympathizers within the state. 

On the same day, two journalists working for VICE were arrested in Diyarbakir on charges of engaging in terror activity on behalf of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The absurdity of the arrest later changed the narrative, as the Turkish police claimed these two journalists and their interpreter were in fact linked with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK). The U.S., the European Union, the Council of Europe and a number of international and national press associations have strongly reacted to the arrests.