President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey

A Turkish court on Monday sentenced two chiefs of a magazine to 22 years in jail after they were found guilty of provoking an armed rebellion, the private Dogan news agency reported.

The men, who ran Nokta magazine, published an edition in 2015 which said on the cover that a “civil war” would begin in Turkey on Nov. 2.

That date was when the country held a parliamentary election, the second of the year, after President Recep Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) failed to secure a majority for the first time since 2002.

A picture of Erdogan also featured on the front page of the magazine, which had since been closed down.

The court ordered that the two magazine chiefs – Cevheri Guven and Murat Capan – be jailed immediately.

Turkey has some 145 media workers, including journalists, in jail, with dozens of outlets shuttered in the past year by the government.

(dpa/NAN)