About The Event

Abdülhamid Bilici was once one of the most prominent and influential media figures in Turkey, as the former editor-in-chief of Zaman, the country’s most widely circulated newspaper, and prior to that as the general director of Cihan, once the nation’s second largest news agency. But following the failed 2016 coup, Bilici’s newspaper was raided and closed by the government; and he was forced into exile under the threat of an arrest warrant.

Well before 2016, President Erdogan increasingly centralized power and expanded his influence in all sectors of Turkish government. But after the coup attempt, Erdogan’s consolidation of authority greatly intensified with the dismissal or jailing of tens of thousands of judges, political figures, journalists and members of the military and the police and the shuttering of numerous media outlets. And for the three years in a row, Turkey has imprisoned more journalists than any other nation in the world.

Bilici will discuss how Turkey, which was once seen as a modern, democratic Muslim majority model for the region, became a nation where press freedoms and other civil rights are in grave peril. He will also discuss the outlook for Turkey, the state of the political opposition, the role of the Gülen movement and Turkey’s potential influence for the Middle East and beyond.