![Sample our Area Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5922/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Area-Studies.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
The Islamic press in Turkey started at the beginning of the 20th century as a reaction to the secularist Young Turks’ revolution of 1908. In the Republican period, Sufi orders and other religious communities maintained internal communication via periodicals despite being interrupted by the 1960, 1971 and 1980 coup d’etats. In the 1990s, the first private Islamic TV channels were opened and soon were targeted by the Turkish Armed Forces through mainstream media in the run-up to the 1997 military memorandum. Only after Erdoğan came to power did the Islamic media find favourable conditions to flourish, lining up with Erdoğan’s AKP. However, there are still small dissident groups who struggle for an independent identity.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. The Islamic Periodical Project provides detailed information about all the periodicals for the period between 1960 and 1980: https://idp.org.tr/.
2. The Directorate of Religious Affairs, DİB, was founded in 1924 to control religious discourse and policy and has functioned as a state apparatus in favor of Sunni Islam after the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate (Öztürk Citation2016, 6).
3. This article of the Constitution notes that institutions of higher education attached to the Turkish Armed Forces and to security organizations are subject to the provisions of their respective special laws. For details see: http://www.hri.org/docs/turkey/part_iii_2.html.
4. Deniz Feneri (DFE) was founded as a charity organization based in Germany after a TV show on the Islamist Kanal 7 (Channel 7). The Frankfurt authorities opened an investigation and raided the offices of DFE and Channel 7 Europe on the grounds of suspected money-laundering activities. The German authorities have also disclosed monetary transactions between DFE and several commercial organizations based in Turkey and Germany over a marketing company that focuses on Islamic publications (Larrabee and Rabasa Citation2008, 59).
5. According to one of the wiretappings, Erdoğan routinely called Fatih Sarac, a Haberturk executive, about the stories broadcasted. Mr. Saraç, a confidant of Mr. Erdogan, suddenly became a top executive at Haberturk in 2012 (Akyol Citation2014; Yeşil Citation2016, 117).
6. Başbakan Erdoğan: Yıkım Ekibi Gibi Çalışıyor, Haberler.com, May 2014, https://www.haberler.com/basbakan-erdogan-yikim-ekibi-bir-calisiyorsa-biz-5655682-haberi/.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Ceren Sözeri
Assoc. Prof. Ceren Sözeri is a faculty member in the Communications Department of Galatasaray University. She earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Galatasaray University. She received her Ph.D. from Marmara University. Sözeri has published on the political economy of the media, media policy, freedom of the press, ethical issues, and discrimination and hate speech in traditional and online media in Turkey.