Critics of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan or government policies have been fired and pro-opposition media offices raided in run-up to elections

Turkish media are coming under what local journalists have described as one of the worst crackdowns in the republic’s history in the run-up to crucial parliamentary elections that may put an end to over a decade of single-party rule by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development party (AKP).

Journalists critical of Erdoğan or government policies have been fired from newspapers seen as close to the president and even assaulted, while offices of pro-opposition media outlets have been raided in what observers say is a broad campaign to intimidate voices demanding change and accountability in Ankara.

“It’s the biggest crackdown on press in Turkish history,” said Tarık Toros, the editor-in-chief of the television station Bugün, which on Wednesday was taken off the air by security officers during a raid, with Toros taking refuge in the station’s control room before being forced out by police.

Runoff parliamentary elections in Turkey are scheduled for 1 November, after a vote in June ended the AKP’s absolute majority in the legislature but coalition talks with the main opposition, the Republican People’s party (CHP), failed.

Various corruption investigations have also chipped away at the AKP’s popularity, along with the rise of charismatic opposition leader Selahattin Demirtaş, who heads the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic party (HDP) and won enough votes in June to secure representation in parliament.

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Turkey has been racked with a spate of security incidents in recent months, including suicide bombings in the majority-Kurdish town of Suruç near the Syrian border and the capital, Ankara. Now journalists say the government is seeking to silence critical voices in the run-up to elections that may force the AKP to rule in tandem with the opposition.

“One-party rule would be a disaster,” said Toros in an interview with the Guardian. “The atrocities against those who do not think like [Erdoğan] would go on and Turkey would enter a darker period.”

Officially, the raid against Toros’s TV station was billed as a takeover after a court-appointed panel allegedly found financial irregularities. A spokesman for the Turkish government said the raid was part of a criminal investigation into the activities of the channel’s parent company, not an attack on freedom of expression.

“This is not a question of press freedom but an investigation into [alleged] white collar crime,” the spokesman said. “The parent company … has been under investigation for financial crimes and the Ankara public prosecutor’s office ordered the appointment of trustees to 23 companies owned by the same parent company in order to prevent the destruction of key evidence.”

In a statement on Wednesday, the prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, said: “This is a legal process. Our government did not intervene. We did not consider intervening and we did not find [intervening] right. About press freedom in Turkey, everybody sees the insults made against our president, [the] AK party, me on the press and in the election campaigns. Everybody expresses their opinions freely,” he added.

Still, critics claim the raid, footage of which has been widely distributed on social media, was an act of revenge after the channel aired interviews with opposition figures including Demirtaş.

“This is Erdoğan,” said Can Dündar, the editor-in-chief of the dissident Cumhuriyet newspaper. “He hates criticism.”

The crackdown comes amid a broader escalation of pressure against journalists in Turkey. A joint mission by press freedom groups including the Committee to Protect Journalists recently said that pressure against journalists throughout the country had mounted in the aftermath of the June elections, threatening Turkey’s democracy.

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Cumhuriyet is facing a series of lawsuits under a law that criminalises insults to the president, a legal tactic used frequently in recent months and years as the newspaper pursued corruption investigations against the Turkish leadership and published a report alleging that Turkish intelligence trucks were smuggling arms to rebels in Syria.

Dündar said Erdoğan feared the corruption investigations and the possibility of the AKP losing political primacy, saying another single-party government would spell disaster for free speech in the country.

“This is really unprecedented in Turkish history,” said Ahmet Hakan, a prominent columnist with the mainstream newspaper Hurriyet and TV host, who was assaulted earlier this month by AKP supporters who broke his nose and ribs, accusing him of advocating for Demirtaş.

“I’m not against the government, I’m just a journalist who criticises the government,” he added. “Despite this I am still subject to physical assault, so it’s normal that journalists who define themselves as oppositional to the government would feel anxious.”

“For the 13 years of this government this is perhaps the most dire time for journalists and when journalists feel the most unsafe,” he said.

Hakan said that while Erdoğan had often sought to couch his actions within the law, his style of governance had grown increasingly authoritarian, adding that a victory in the coming elections would empower him to further crack down on the press.

Semra Pelek, the former political editor of the daily Milliyet, which is seen as close to Erdoğan, said there was a broad campaign of oppression against the media.

Pelek was fired from her job two months ago, the latest in a series of sackings at the newspaper after the publication in 2013 of the minutes of a secret meeting held in Oslo between Turkish intelligence agents and representatives of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK).

Leaked recordings of an alleged phone call between Erdoğan and the owner of the newspaper appeared to show an angry president ordering the paper’s chief to fire the reporters and editors responsible for the story, with the owner sobbing at the end of the tirade.

“Just look at what happened yesterday,” said Pelek. “Police entered a media institution and cut the broadcast, and they weren’t so-called thugs, but state security officers.”

“They have their own version of reality,” she said of Erdoğan and the ruling AKP. “An Ottoman dream, a palace. Erdoğan and his world see anyone opposing that reality as a threat. Even the tiniest criticism is perceived as a threat.”