Ahval is an online news website that primarily reports on Turkey. The site was launched in 2017. Turkish journalist Yavuz Baydar is the current editor and İlhan Tanır is the chief of the English desk. In February 2018, Ahval was blocked by the Turkish government for users in Turkey. In an interview with observatoireturquie.fr, Baydar stated that the site has 230,000 daily visitors. Talking to German newspaperSuddeutche Zeitung, Baydar said that the creation of Ahval aimed "to fill a gap caused by media bans and self-censorship in Turkey.
Ownership
The website is owned by Ahval News Ltd, which is based in Cyprus. According to Qantara.de Ahval are financially supported by London media organisation "Al Arab", who are subsidized by the United Arab Emirates. Qantara criticised Ahval's Arabic language service for not being as neutral as its English language version. Baydar responded to claims about Ahval's funding by saying "whatever your financier, what matters is independence. When I worked in England, at the BBCWorld Service, it was never a problem for me to have this institution partially funded by the London government." The Turkish government claims that Ahval is used as a counter-propaganda tool against Turkey’s president.
Ahval has been accused of having links to the Gulen movement. In January 2020, editor-in-chief Yavuz Baydar, who left Turkey following the 2016 coup attempt, had prosecution cases opened against him by Turkey accusing him of ties to the Gülen movement, along with other 65 other journalists and academics, on "fabricated allegations of terrorism and accusations of working on behalf of foreign governments". In October 2018, the 27th High Criminal Court in Istanbul requested Interpol issue a red notice for Ilhan Tanır on charges of being a member of the Gülen movement and PKK sympathiser, on the basis of tweets, attending a teleconference and an interview given with ARA News in 2015-2016. Tanir, currently head of Ahval's English desk, and Cumhuriyet’s Washington correspondent at the time, denies these links. Editor Ergun Babahan is also accused of being a follower of Fethullah Gulen. Yavuz Baydar denies that the site has any affiliation with Gülen. He states that "We are not the mouthpiece of any interest group nor are we part of any activist movement." Ahval has published critical commentary on Gülen's movement by authors like Nick Ashdown and Gökhan Bacık. Bacık had left the Gülen movement and "started writing critical and highly informative pieces on both the Gülen movement and Islamic conservatism." Turkish journalist Cengiz Candar, writing for al-Monitor, noted that "Police raids of residences have targeted many linked to the failed coup. But to associate Baydar with the coup is impossible."
