Sayfalar

17 Ocak 2016 Pazar

Qatar: Erdogan's biggest accomplice in attacks against media



Digiturk, Turkey's largest digital broadcasting platform with its 3.3 million customers, was purchased by Bein Media Group, owned by Royal Family of Qatar in July last year. This acquisition, which wouldn't normally receive much news coverage, was much more than a regular purchase. It was rather one of the most important cornerstones of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's quest of dominating the media using Qatari capital. Therefore, this acquisition requires a much deeper look.


Digiturk was founded by Mehmet Emin Karamehmet. one of Turkey's most prominent businessmen 15 years ago. Coming from a wealthy family, Karamehmet was a visionary businessman. who turned Cukurova Holding into an multinational empire in a short span of time thanks to investments in banking, telecommunication, energy, shipping and media. In 2000, when Digiturk started broadcasting, Forbes announced that he was the 42th richest man on earth with his personal fortune of 8 billion dollars. His fame expanded beyond Turkish borders between 1990s and 2000s.

Economic crisis of February 2001 in Turkey shook Karamehmet's empire deeply. He has initially lost his banks Yapi Kredi and Pamukbank. Then he signed an agreement with the state to restructure his debt in January 2003, when officials have found out that he used loans exceeding the legal limit from his own banks. He managed to pay the debt of 2.1 million dollars in short notice to save his companies in telecommunication, shipping and media from going bankrupt or a state bailout.

Turkish Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (SDIF), in charge of failed banks, detected  irregular credit using by Karamehmet in 2008 and appointed interim board members to his companies. Furthermore, the businessman has signed a new protocol with the government to pay this unexpected debt of 398 million dollars.

Although the media mogul was relieved once more with this protocol, this relief was not to take long. Erdogan piled the pressure on Karamehmet, as his portfolio including Turkey's largest  telecommunication carrier Turkcell, biggest oil producer in Northern Iraq Genel Energy, military vehicle producer BMC and Digiturk kept many businessmen closely linked to ruling Justice and Development Party wondering.

SDIF took another step in May 2013 and seized Cukurova Group's companies in defense, media and digital broadcasting on the grounds that they didn't meet the conditions of the protocol signed in 2009.

Companies were granted to AKP affiliated businessmen

Karamehmet's tv channels and newspapers were sold to businessmen close to AKP by SDIF without any tenders as it's generally the method.

BMC, the defense company, was purchased by one of the closest businessman to AKP almost without any relevant fee.

But Digiturk's faith would become a critical juncture including many prominent holdings. Turk Telekom, owned by Lebanese family of Hariris and Turkish media mogul Aydin Dogan made official offers to buy Digiturk. Moreover, two other media moguls Ferit Sahenk and Turgay Ciner have also taken an interest in the platform.

SDIF hasn't sold the platform with a market capitalization of 1.2-1.4 billion dollars in an curious decision. Rumors suggested that Ankara hasn't allowed the acquisition before the presidential and local elections in 2014 so that the ruling AKP would keep the reins of the media through SDIF.

Erdogan came up with decisive victories from both local and presidential elections. After being elected as president, Erdogan's hardened stance towards the opposing media and his new strategy  turned out to include Digiturk in a great way.

Digiturk was sold to Qatari Bein Media Group in July 2005, when Qatari Emir Tamim Bin Hamad El Thani carried out an official visit to Turkey.

Digiturk, Karamehmet's most valuable asset, was sold sold to Qataris, Erdogan's most powerful ally on international arena, without any tender as it was the case with his other investments. Today, five months after the purchase, the price of the acquisition is still undisclosed.

While the deal is still pending regulatory licenses, something very critical has happened.

Appointed by the government, bureaucrats who were in charge of the administration of Digiturk since May 2013, have made a curious decision. Some anti-government tv channels have been eliminated from the platform citing anti-terror laws. This decision angered Digiturk subscribers as many of them have opted out of their subscriptions. The hashtag #sansurcudigiturk  (digiturk censorship) has become a trending topic on Twitter for many days.

This elimination has become a public relations disaster and it has hit the company's market capitalization greatly. But since many people assumed Qataris were in control of the company, they blamed it on Arabs.

Qatar: The largest sponsor of pro-Erdogan media

Qatar, who is the leading sponsor of Erdogan's rule, first became a player in the Turkish media landscape in 2008. Calik Holding, where Erdogan's son in law has worked as CEO, has bought Turkey's second biggest media group Sabah-ATV from SDIF. For this 1.1 billion dollar acquisition, the holding utilized 750 million dollars of loan from state banks and 250 million dollars of loan from a company linked to Qatar's sovereign wealth fund. Calik Holding paid the rest of the sum from its own resources. Qataris, owning 25 percent share in the media group with 250 million dollars, simply donated to pave the way for Erdogan to further dominate the Turkish media.

Qataris, not having big expectations from this partnership, were wiling to appear on Turkish media with their own brand. For this goal, they started searching for ways to set up a news channel under the Al Jazeera brand and support it with local components. The new channel would have two main goals in introducing Erdogan and Davutoglu's policies to Balkans, Middle East and Central Asia along with competing Turkey's most prominent news channel Cnn Turk. Qataris' first step towards this goal would be buying Cine 5 from SDIF in 2011. 

There's been even a change in Turkish broadcasting law to simplify matters for Al Jazeera. Gurkan Zengin, the author of Davutoglu's biography, was appointed to lead the channel. The location chosen for the channel would be Davutoglu backed Istanbul Sehir University's campus and many executives from pro-Davutoglu think tank SETA were appointed to channel's board. One of the executives of Al Jazeera Turk was later appointed to one of Turkish intelligency agency's crucial units.

Al Jazeera Turk's web news portal became online in January 2014 and provided the government with critical material to exploit in its election campaigns and joined the defamation campaigns against opposition figures.

Turkish media, under heavy pressure from court cases, arrests and interrogations, now faces complete closure of tv channels and elimination from digital broadcasting platforms as new instruments of censorship. Qataris', with their track record that supported an Erdogan domination in Turkish media for the last seven years, wouldn't surprise anyone by further accomplicing in attacks against media freedom for the years to come.




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