Turkey's latest opposition media? It's Yeni Safak, sort of

When the Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak celebrated its 30th anniversary last year, Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a congratulatory message.

In it, Turkey's president stated that "our newspaper" had maintained an honorable stance in defence of Turkish democracy over the course of its existence.

"Yeni Safak, which successfully fulfilled a very important mission in the 1990s when unsolved murders, terrorism, gangs and corruption were rampant, has been the voice of the nation, the national will and democracy for 30 years," he said.

Founded in 1994 as an independent publication intended to be the voice of pious right-wing voters in Turkey, Yeni Safak emerged as a safe haven for liberal voices exiled from the mainstream media by the military in the late 90s.

When Erdogan founded his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2001, it was said that he and other leaders advised party members to read Yeni Safak every day.

Erdogan's ties with Yeni Safak owner Ahmet Albayrak are deep, going back to the late 1980s when they both served within the Islamist Welfare Party. Today, the newspaper is not known for its tolerance towards liberal voices that criticise the government.

This year, though, the newspaper's editorial line has attracted attention as a result of a discernible shift in stance.

The unofficial opposition

Even though Yeni Safak has critiqued government policies at times in the past, a recent string of front-pages has raised eyebrows.

In a country where 90 percent of the mainstream media is controlled by conglomerates close to the Turkish government, Yeni Safak has emerged as one of the few voices daring to directly attack specific government policies.

Journalists in Ankara now joke that Yeni Safak has become an unofficial opposition newspaper, a charge people working at the daily strongly deny.

'They trust that Erdogan is also against the rates'

- Former Yeni Safak employee

Yeni Safak's position on certain policies is well known. The newspaper has been against high interest rates for years, arguing that they only benefit profiteers.

It even ran a campaign against then-Central Bank Governor Naci Agbal, accusing him of "conducting a financial operation" to slow down economic growth in 2021, resulting in his sudden dismissal and replacement with a Yeni Safak columnist.

The newspaper didn't hide its opposition to the new finance minister, Mehmet Simsek, soon after his appointment in 2023, regularly bashing the central bank for its decision to hike rates.

However, the volume of criticism appearing on Yeni Safak's front pages has taken a drastic turn in the last few months. In May, Yeni Safak reported on the front page that there had been "an economic collapse" in Turkey, directly attacking Simsek's high-interest rate policy, which they claimed resulted in "low industrial output".

In October, another front-page headline regarding the economy read: "We have no strength left to endure", adding, "The business world wants interest rate cuts and access to credit".

Champions of private property

Former Yeni Safak employees say the owners of the Yeni Safak media group have an ideological stance against interest rates and would not budge on the issue, even though Erdogan empowered Simsek to run a high-interest rate policy.

"They trust that Erdogan is also against the rates," one former employee told Middle East Eye. Indeed, Erdogan last year said that his stance on this issue has not changed, but he has to act pragmatically to float the economy.

Middle East Eye wrote to Yeni Safak requesting comment for this article but had not received a response by the time of publication.

The newspaper reported that a legal amendment drafted by the government would grant prosecutors the power to seize assets without a court order. "Power that poses a threat to private property," the paper said in a headline. "It threatens property rights, bypasses the judiciary and contradicts universal legal principles."

Another former Yeni Safak employee told MEE that the Albayrak Group, a construction conglomerate run by Yeni Safak owner Ahmet Albayrak and his brothers, was genuinely worried about the law being used against the company in the future in the event of a change of power. Turkey is set for presidential elections in 2028.

The newspaper attacked the High Court of Appeal over a separate seizure of the private property judgement while its two columnists criticised Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya on a live broadcast over his poor performance.

Meeting Ocalan

Then came the latest headline, one that triggered a small war of words within Turkey's ruling coalition, which includes the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

Devlet Bahceli, chairman of the MHP and a key Erdogan partner, has been advocating for sending a parliamentary delegation to Imrali Island to meet Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Since last year, Ocalan has been in talks with the government to reach a peace deal that would oversee the dissolution of the PKK in return for political amnesty and greater Kurdish rights.

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People close to the ruling AKP told MEE that Erdogan, despite initiating the peace talks, was wary of sending members of parliament to Imrali Island, considering the ramifications within Turkish society.

Ankara has labelled Ocalan a "baby killer" and "terrorist head", declaring him public enemy number one for decades. Bahceli, on the other hand, pushed for the visit, arguing that it was crucial to recognise Ocalan's role in peace.

Amid this deadlock, Yeni Safak published another headline, seemingly quoting a survey on the issue in early November: "The commission should not go to Imrali."

"News that the parliamentary commission leading the 'Terror-Free Turkey' process would visit Imrali has drawn public reaction," the report said. "According to a poll conducted by Areda Survey, 76.7 percent of citizens oppose the commission going to Imrali to meet with Ocalan."

The next day, Turkgun, a newspaper close to the MHP, responded to Yeni Safak: "What's your problem?"

"To undermine Devlet Bahceli's proposal for the parliamentary commission to visit Imrali, the newspaper Yeni Safak took action," Turkgun said. "The paper attempted to sabotage the process with a news story based on a research firm's survey."

Levels of criticism

A Yeni Safak journalist, who wished to remain anonymous, said the newspaper's editorial line has been clear on "peace talks" with the PKK: they support the government's "terror-free" project, though they want to bring attention to details that could hurt the process.

"In Syria, the PKK's proxy attacks against Turkey, carried out entirely in line with the wishes of the US, Israel and western states, has revealed that the organisation has turned into a structure serving purposes beyond Kurdish politics. This situation has inevitably influenced our publication policy," the journalist said.

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The journalist said that Yeni Safak has been criticising high interest rates for years, and there has been no change in its government-aligned stance on national politics. The second former Yeni Safak employee, on the other hand, said that the newspaper's criticism of the Imrali visit indicates the existence of cliques within the ruling AKP.

Many AKP members of parliament have told journalists at various times over the past two weeks that they would not want to be photographed with Ocalan.

"How could we meet our constituency after meeting Ocalan? We might not even be able to walk in the street!" one MP said last week.

The stalemate on the visit pushed Bahceli to issue a strongly worded statement on Wednesday: he indirectly blamed Erdogan for remaining silent on the issue, saying that he would personally visit Ocalan if the parliamentary commission that is dealing with the Kurdish question could not make a decision to go.

The statement put Erdogan in a bind. He eventually said the commission itself must make a decision on the issue. Finally, three members of parliament - one from the AKP, one from the MHP and one from the pro-Kurdish DEM Party - visited Ocalan on Monday, resolving the incident without Erdogan's clear backing.

Maybe Yeni Safak isn't too critical of the government after all.