Abdulhamit Bilici: how Turkey lost its largest newspaper
This article by Claire Callahan, Amanda Ghiloni, and Cami Santa Anna was published first in the "WPWire"
Abdulhamit Bilici was the editor-in-chief of "Zaman", the largest newspaper in Turkey, before it was taken over by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Fired and receiving threats of imprisonment, he fled to Northern Virginia, USA. “I was supposed to report about his campaign when he was running for office as mayor of Istanbul,” Bilici said. “These were the early days of my career in journalism.”
Abdulhamit Bilici at his newspaper before it was closed down (picture: thewpwire.org)
'Zaman' was created in 1986, before Erdoğan was a high-profile politician. "Our…
