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Trial begins for Turkish journalists accused of Gulen links

The Zaman newspaper trial has opened with 31 journalists accused of membership in the network of preacher Fethullah Gulen.
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The trial of 31 journalists, writers and executives from the shuttered Zaman newspaper started at the courthouse of the maximum-security penitentiary in Istanbul’s Silivri district Sept. 18. The defendants are accused of membership in the network of Pennsylvania-based preacher Fethullah Gulen to which many Turks refer as the Fethullah Gulen Terror Organization, or FETO. The Turkish government is accusing Gulen of instigating last summer’s coup attempt.

The story of Zaman, founded in 1986, parallels the rise and fall of the Gulenist network. Just like Gulen and his followers, Zaman rose to prominence in the 1990s as a moderate voice of conservative Muslims in Turkey. In the 2000s, thanks in no small measure to the ascendance of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the ruling party’s good relations with Gulen, Zaman became Turkey’s highest-circulated daily newspaper. Meanwhile, Gulen’s influence within the Turkish state — especially in the judiciary, the police and the armed forces — expanded.

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