The opponents of Turkey abroad and those adversaries of the government at home are all claiming the investigation launched against left-wing daily Cumhuriyet shows that the administration in Turkey is using the State of Emergency to clamp down on the opposition in general instead of concentrating on the Fetullah Gülen terrorist organization that staged a bloody coup attempt on July 15.

It is also no secret that the paper views the PKK secessionist terrorists with sympathy, which has been a source of criticism from all circles in Turkey.

What Cumhuriyet is doing is ugly but not a crime.

Cumhuriyet is highly critical of the government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. That too is undesired, but it is not a crime.

However, it is also true that Cumhuriyet has been involved in shady deals with the Gülen militants and there are claims that the financially ailing newspaper has been financed by the Gülenists. It is no secret that the newspaper has been strongly supporting the PKK and trying to justify the terrorist actions of left-wing groups including the assassination of a prominent prosecutor in Istanbul... This can be regarded as a major crime and thus the executives of Cumhuriyet may well be prosecuted for this.

Some people at home and abroad are claiming that the legal action against Cumhuriyet is a part of a government offensive to silence the opposition. This is not true. The raid on Cumhuriyet was a surprise for the government as it was for the supporters of the government. It is an action taken by the chief prosecutor. The charges are very clear. The prosecutor is saying Cumhuriyet has tacitly supported the terrorists in its publications.

There is no reason for the government to target Cumhuriyet as this would create the wrong impression that there is a general clampdown on opposition in Turkey. The government is aware that there is already an inner battle in Cumhuriyet among the left-wing power groups and this is tearing the one-time prominent newspaper apart. So the government does not really have to take any action against Cumhuriyet as the former and current executives of the paper are involved in a fatal power struggle.

The newspaper is run by a foundation. There is a vicious fight between groups supported by former Cumhuriyet Ankara representative Mustafa Balbay who is now a deputy from the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and among those who support Orhan Erinç. The two groups are fighting a battle to gain control of the foundation and thus the newspaper.

Balbay was imprisoned on charges of being a part of a clandestine group to stage a coup but was found innocent and released. He was a hero for the Cumhuriyet readers and yet he was edged out of the newspaper by the rival group and has been battling them ever since.

Balbay's supporters say the current administrators of the Cumhuriyet Foundation were involved in irregularities and thus have to be removed from office. They say the administrators edged them out with four signatures while the statute of the foundation requires seven signatures. A court battle is in progress and a verdict may come as early as late November.

This damaging battle is already a blow to the ailing newspaper, which used to be one the most prominent newspapers in Turkey. Now unfortunately it is only a shadow of its old self. Thus there is hardly any reason why the government would even regard this daily as a major threat.