Outlet profile

Turkish Minute

Turkish opposition exile press, Gülen/Hizmet-movement-linked

Owned byIndependent; operated by exiled Turkish journalists with ties to the Gülen (Hizmet) movement network. Adem Yavuz Arslan runs the platform from Washington, D.C.; founding editor was Sevgi Akarçeşme, former editor-in-chief of the Gülen-affiliated Today's Zaman.

FundingSpecific funding sources are not publicly disclosed; believed to rely on reader donations and diaspora community support

On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

Turkish Minute launched in March 2016, within days of a Turkish court placing Zaman and its English-language sister paper Today's Zaman under government-appointed trustees, effectively ending their independent operation. Journalists including Sevgi Akarçeşme, Today's Zaman's former editor-in-chief, used the new site to publish articles that the trustees had blocked from appearing in print. The outlet is widely identified as part of the media ecosystem of Fethullah Gülen's Hizmet movement, which the Turkish government designated a terrorist organization following the July 2016 coup attempt and which Gülen's followers deny. Its contributors and editors are largely journalists in exile, with operations centered in the United States and Europe. The outlet maintains close ties to the Stockholm Center for Freedom, a Sweden-based press-freedom advocacy group also founded by exiled journalists linked to the Gülen network. Turkish Minute's coverage focuses heavily on press freedom violations, political trials, human rights abuses, and government crackdowns on dissent inside Turkey, and is consistently and sharply critical of the Erdogan administration. No significant public revenue disclosures exist, and the outlet is believed to depend on diaspora community support and donations rather than advertising.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-06-26; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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