As I mentioned in the previous picture, the Turkish government got a “court” (set up by the government) to order the takeover of my newspaper, headquartered in Istanbul, but nothing had happened other than a lot of stress at the office and the feeling that we could be publishing our last paper. I woke up around 2 a.m. only to see the police storming our offices in a live feed from an affiliated news agency. One of my copy editors was also online, and we watched the barbaric scene in horror, with tear gas used on a huge group of protestors and employees who had gathered outside, policemen manhandling our colleagues, the building basically torn apart. I haven’t been in touch with any of my staff since then, but I am certain most everybody is in a state of shock. I think it’s safe to say that my job of 10 years there has ended…

There is widespread international news coverage on the takeover and condemnations worldwide for the Turkish government’s further trampling of human rights and basic freedoms and its attempt to silence the free press in the country. Here is the BBC lead story http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35735793 and our own website coverage is here http://www.todayszaman.com/national_turkish-police-raid-zaman-hqs-fire-tear-gas-on-readers-after-govt-takeover_414040.html written and photographed in the middle of the night.

Arches, posted earlier: