Type Daily Newspaper Editor-in-chief Serdar Karagoz | Owner(s) Turkuvaz Media Group Founded 2014 | |
Publisher Turkuvaz Gazete Dergi Basim A.S. Political alignment conservative, political conservatism | ||
Daily Sabah (lit. "Daily Morning") is a Turkish pro-government daily published in Turkey. Published in English, German and Arabic-language and owned by Turkuvaz Media Group, Daily Sabah published its first issue on 24 February 2014. The editor-in-chief of Daily Sabah is Serdar Karagöz.
Contents
Daily Sabah has frequently been called a propaganda outlet for the Turkish government and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
History
Daily Sabah was established in 2014 when a highly antagonistic political climate reigned in Turkish politics. After the conflict, in December 2013, between the Gulen movement, a religious civil society organization with some political aspirations, and the then ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Gulen movement's Today's Zaman turned an ardent critic of the ruling AKP. In order to balance the critical discourse against the AKP by Today's Zaman and Hürriyet Daily News, a secular critic of the AKP, Daily Sabah emerged as a supportive voice of the AKP in English language.
A columnist from Sabah, the main daily of Turkuaz Media Group, legitimized the establishment of Daily Sabah as the following: "While anti-government groups were reaching English-speaking audiences, it was impossible to understand what the government and the AKP were saying and trying to do".
Editorial policy and viewpoints
Daily Sabah describes itself as a daily "committed to the democracy, the rule of law, human rights and liberty". Despite this official description, Daily Sabah is by some labelled as mouthpiece of the AKP and especially Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the current president of Turkey.
According to the German Spiegel Online newspaper, Daily Sabah is very critical of the Gulen movement, which was accused of trying to overthrow the government in an attempted Coup D'etat. Daily Sabah has been described as using transparent and ill formed Turkish style propaganda to advance the AKP government's version of events.
Promoting conspiracy theories
The Daily Sabah has seen particular criticism for promotion of the "mastermind" conspiracy theory coined by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, according to which an alleged command and control institution, somewhat ambiguously placed with the government of the United States, in a comprehensive conspiracy to weaken or even dismember Turkey allegedly orchestrates multiple political actors perceived hostile by Turkey — like the Salafi jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Anarcho-Marxist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Islamist cult with political ambitions around Fethullah Gülen — to attack Turkey in a well-coordinated campaign.