2011-03-21 #WikiLeaks makes its first partnership with #Turkey

Last Thursday, 17th March, Wikileaks announced the first partnership with a newspaper in Turkey on releasing around 11,000 U.S. State Department cables regarding Turkey from between 2000 and 2010 to Taraf, a liberal Turkish newspaper . Publishing since late 2007, Taraf has distinguished itself by opposing interference by the Turkish Military in civilian affairs. After Taraf revelations made on June 21 (2008) regarding the Egenoton (an alleged clandestine, ultra-nationalist organization in Turkey with ties to members of the country's military and security forces), when Adnan Demir, who was on the editorial staff of Taraf, was charged with leaking secret military information, the military responded by canceling the newspaper's accreditation for press releases at its headquarters for a short time. Taraf itself is also a whistle-blower journal, since Turkish military leaks were published on its pages more than once. Taraf holds a very good reputation worldwide, the journal was quoted by Der Spiegel, Times Online and such others as "Courageous," "independent," "plucky," and "scrappy".

Because of heavy political persecution on Taraf, deriving from its famously bad relationship with the Turkish Military, most enterprises have a fear of advertising in the journal and its pages present very little propaganda. Various suspicions about who supports Taraf were always present in Turkish people’s mind. Rumors that the CIA or the major party AKP are financially responsible for Taraf still exist among the public. The jewish millionaire who described himself as Taraf’s supporter gave an interview to NYT in 2009.

While Turkey recently suffers from strong harassment on freedom of speech and various journalists and publications are threatened with physical and political violence, Julian Assange pointed to Taraf as “the bravest newspaper in Turkey”.

Today’s highlights of the Wikileaks section of Taraf denounces underground forces inside the government acting against current president Tayyip according to cables of 2002.




We look forward to covering Taraf’s analysis and gathering more information of its strategy and focus on releasing the leaked cables.