ANKARA - The closure of a private television channel following a broadcast implicating the husband of the Foreign Minister, Ms Tansu Ciller, in corruption led to fresh political turmoil in Turkey yesterday, with even a cabinet minister criticising the move.
"This is a sad move which will be corrected," the Defence Minister, Mr Turhan Tayan, a member of Ms Ciller's conservative True Path Party, said. "This is an indication that the government will crack down on media members broadcasting against the wills of the political power," the conservative main opposition Motherland Party added in a statement.
Police raided the headquarters of Flash TV in the western city of Bursa on Saturday evening, stopping its broadcast one day after the network's Istanbul studios were attacked by armed men. The communications ministry, controlled by Ciller's True Path, ordered Flash TV's closure as the channel "lacked permission to broadcast via radiolink systems."