On 4 March 2016, in what activists and international media groups criticized as another blow to press freedom in Turkey, control of the newspaper was seized by the government.

The takeover was motivated by the newspaper's ties to the Hizmet movement of Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, which the government accuses of attempting to establish a parallel state in Turkey.

[9] In addition to four locations in Turkey, regional editions were printed and distributed in Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Germany, Romania, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Turkmenistan, and the US.

Zaman has prints in 10 different languages[9] including Kyrgyz, Romanian, Bulgarian, Azeri, Uzbek, Turkmen and Kazakh.

The total paid circulation of Zaman was verified by an independent Media Auditing company, BPA Worldwide, after accusations that the newspaper was being handed out freely to gain market share.

[10] BPA audit figures also showed that Zaman had one of the largest subscriber bases of a national newspaper in Europe.

On 14 December 2014, Turkish police arrested more than two dozen senior journalists and media executives on charges of "forming, leading and being a member of an armed terrorist organization."

A statement by the US State Department drawing attention to raids against media outlets "openly critical of the current Turkish government", cautioned Turkey not to violate its "own democratic foundations".

While crowds celebrated the release of Dumanlı in the courtyard of the courthouse, they protested the arrest order for Samanyolu TV General Manager Hidayet Karaca and former police chiefs Tufan Ergüder, Ertan Erçıktı and Mustafa Kılıçaslan.

[19] Two days later, the first government-controlled edition appeared, with no mention of the events during its seizure and with its front page carrying a series of pro-government articles and a picture of a smiling president Erdogan.