''Cumhuriyet'' (; English: "

Republic A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...

") is the oldest up-market Turkish daily

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

. It has been described as "the most important independent public interest newspaper in contemporary

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

". The newspaper was awarded the ''Freedom of Press Prize'' by

Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...

in 2015 and the Alternative Nobel Prize in 2016.TV5 Monde Prize ceremony
Reporters without Borders, 19 November. 2015 It is considered Turkey's

newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major national newspaper with large circulation whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered authoritative and independent; they are thus "newspapers of record by reputation" and include some of the o ...

. It has been known for its far-left policies and stance of publishing anti-

reactionary In political science, a reactionary or a reactionist is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the ''status quo ante'', the previous political state of society, which that person believes possessed positive characteristics abse ...

titles and news at least since the 1960s. Established on 7 May 1924 by

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu (1879, Fethiye – 28 June 1945) was a renowned Turkish journalist and the founder of the newspaper ''Cumhuriyet''. He was known to be a sympathizer of the Nazi regime before the war, as he published many antisemitic prop ...

, a confidant of the

Turkish Republic Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

's founder

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, or Mustafa Kemal Pasha until 1921, and Ghazi Mustafa Kemal from 1921 Surname Law (Turkey), until 1934 ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish Mareşal (Turkey), field marshal, Turkish National Movement, re ...

, the newspaper has subscribed to a staunchly

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

course. In the past closely affiliated with the

Kemalist Kemalism ( tr, Kemalizm, also archaically ''Kamâlizm''), also known as Atatürkism ( tr, Atatürkçülük, Atatürkçü düşünce), or The Six Arrows ( tr, Altı Ok), is the founding official ideology of the Republic of Turkey.Eric J. Zurche ...

Republican People's Party The Republican People's Party ( tr, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, , acronymized as CHP ) is a Kemalist and social-democratic political party in Turkey which currently stands as the main opposition party. It is also the oldest political party ...

(CHP), the

far-left Far-left politics, also known as the radical left or the extreme left, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single definition. Some scholars consider ...

newspaper turned to a more independent course over time, advocating

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...

, social liberal values and

free market In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any o ...

s. Today, "being a Cumhuriyet reader has become synonymous with embracing democratic values and a pluralistic society". The newspaper's anti-government advertisements before the 2007 Turkish presidential election and

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

caused controversy for "warning" voters against the AKP government with the message "Are you aware of the danger?". Notably, the newspaper has also broken the story on the treasonous 2014 National Intelligence Organisation scandal in Turkey, reprinted the scandalous cartoons from ''

Charlie Hebdo ''Charlie Hebdo'' (; meaning ''Charlie Weekly'') is a French satirical weekly magazine, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. Stridently non-conformist in tone, the publication has been described as Anti-racism, anti-racist, sceptica ...

,'' and reported on the

Panama Papers The Panama Papers ( es, Papeles de Panamá) are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) that were published beginning on April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 ...

and

Paradise Papers The Paradise Papers are a set of over 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked to the German reporters Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, from the newspaper'' Süddeutsch ...

affairs while linking prominent Turkish figures to the documents. ''Cumhuriyet'' has been targeted throughout its history, such as with the assassinations of

Uğur Mumcu Uğur Mumcu (; 22 August 1942 – 24 January 1993)
um:ag was a Turkish people, Turkish investigative journalist for the daily ''Cum ...

Bahriye Üçok Bahriye Üçok (1919 – October 6, 1990) was a Turkish academic of theology, left-wing politician, writer, columnist, and women's rights activist whose assassination in 1990 remains unresolved. Early life and education Born in Trabzon, Bahriye ...

, Ahmet Taner Kışlalı,

Muammer Aksoy Muammer Aksoy (1917 – January 31, 1990) was a Turkish academic of law, politician, columnist and intellectual. He was assassinated. Biography Aksoy was born 1917 in İbradı, Antalya Province Antalya Province ( tr, ) is located on the ...

Ümit Kaftancıoğlu Ümit Kaftancıoğlu (1935 – 11 April 1980) was a Turkish TV producer, writer and columnist of the newspaper ''Cumhuriyet''. Life and career Kaftancıoğlu was born in Saskara village, Hanak, Ardahan Province. He graduated from Cilavuz Villa ...

Onat Kutlar Onat Kutlar (25 January 1936 – 11 January 1995) was a prominent Turkish writer and poet, founder of the Turkish Sinematek and cofounder of the Istanbul International Film Festival. Biography Onat Kutlar was born in Alanya, Turkey, on 25 J ...

, and

Cavit Orhan Tütengil Cavit Orhan Tütengil (1921 – December 7, 1979) was a Turkish sociologist, writer and columnist, who was assassinated. Biography He was born in Sebil, a village of Tarsus, in Mersin province of what was then the Ottoman Empire. Following ...

. More recent attacks include the 2008 molotov attack on the newspaper's headquarters in Istanbul's

Şişli Şişli () is one of the 39 districts of Istanbul, Turkey. Located on the European side of the city, it is bordered by Beşiktaş to the east, Sarıyer to the north, Eyüp and Kağıthane to the west, and Beyoğlu to the south. In 2009, Şi ...

district and the attempted assassination of Can Dündar in 2016. The newspaper has been described as "a high-profile target in the Erdoğan government’s crackdown on media". By the end of 2016, almost half of the paper's reporters, columnists and executives had been jailed.

History

The founding

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of ''Cumhuriyet'' was

Zekeriya Sertel Zekeriya Sertel, also known as Mehmet Zekeriya Sertel, (1890–1980) was a Turkish journalist. He is the first director of state press department and founder and editor of various periodicals. From 1950 to 1980 Sertel lived in exile. Early life ...

, a Turkish journalist. Following the death of Yunus Nadi on 28 March 1945 in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, ''Cumhuriyet'' was owned by his eldest son until his death on 20 August 1991. Nadir Nadi's wife Berin then published the newspaper. ''Cumhuriyet'' has been owned by the Cumhuriyet Foundation since the death of Berin Nadi on 5 November 2001. One of its publishers was the renowned political

columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (newspaper), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the fo ...

İlhan Selçuk İlhan Selçuk (11 March 1925 – 21 June 2010) was a Turkish lawyer, journalist, author, novelist and editor. Biography Selcuk was born in the western Turkish Aydın Province in 1925. His mother, who was Armenian, hid her Armenian roots. He ea ...

, who was also chairman of the board of trustees and lead writer (from 1992) until his death in 2010. ''Cumhuriyet'' contributors such as

Uğur Mumcu Uğur Mumcu (; 22 August 1942 – 24 January 1993)
um:ag was a Turkish people, Turkish investigative journalist for the daily ''Cum ...

, Ahmet Taner Kışlalı,

, and

were assassinated between the 1970s and 1990s. During the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

, ''Cumhuriyet'' suffered a collapse in advertising revenue, and following an unrelated dispute over editorial policy, nearly 40 journalists and commentators walked out in November 1991: "Circulation fell by half, and it was saved only by an extraordinary campaign by readers to buy extra copies and even pay money into a special account."

Hasan Cemal Hasan Cemal (born 1944) is a Turkish journalist and writer. He was the editor of ''Cumhuriyet'' from 1981 to 1992, and of ''Sabah'' from 1992 to 1998. In 2013 he resigned from the '' Milliyet'' newspaper after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ...

, chief editor since 1981, resigned in January 1992 over the dispute: "I tried to widen the spectrum, to keep the balance. But they (old-guard intellectuals) always resisted, calling us plotters, tools of big business and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

".Hugh Pope, ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', 12 May 1992
Media: It's News Vs. Nudes in the Turkish Press: The glitzy Sabah daily and the respected Cumhuriyet reflect clashing cultures at a continental crossroads
/ref> Since 17 October 2005, the newspaper's headquarters have been located in Istanbul's

district, after being the last newspaper to leave the traditional press district of

Cağaloğlu Cağaloğlu is a quarter located in the Fatih district of Istanbul, Turkey. Much of the publishing industry in Istanbul is located in Cağaloğlu. It is also famous for its ancient hamam, or Turkish bath, known as the Cağaloğlu Hamam. Name The q ...

. The newspaper also has offices in

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

and

İzmir İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban agglo ...

. The newspaper'
advertisements
before the 2007 Turkish presidential election and

with the message "Are you aware of the danger?" were controversial. 's office in Istanbul was the site of a molotov attack in 2008. In 2010, the newspaper was one of the first up-market newspapers in Turkey to abandon the established

broadsheet A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper format), ta ...

format for the midi-sized

Berliner format Berliner, or "midi", is a newspaper format with pages normally measuring about . The Berliner format is slightly taller and marginally wider than the tabloid/compact format; and is both narrower and shorter than the broadsheet format. Origi ...

. In January 2015, the newspaper reprinted cartoons from ''

'', a French satirical magazine which had depicted the

Islamic prophet Prophets in Islam ( ar, الأنبياء في الإسلام, translit=al-ʾAnbiyāʾ fī al-ʾIslām) are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God in Islam, God's message on Earth and to serve as models of ideal human behaviour. So ...

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

and been subject to a terror attack. As a result, ''Cumhuriyet'' received threats and was placed under police protection.Josh Levs et al (14 February 2015
Turkey bans Charlie Hebdo cover, newspaper gets death threats
CNN In 2015, it was awarded the ''Freedom of Press Prize'' by international

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

for making a stand against the AKP government's mounting pressure. On 22 September 2016 the newspaper was awarded the

Right Livelihood Award The Right Livelihood Award is an international award to "honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today." The prize was established in 1980 by German-Swedish philanthropist Jakob v ...

for its "fearless investigative reporting and standing up for freedom of speech and opinion despite being subject to death threats, censorship and state prosecution". In 2016 the newspaper reported on the

and in 2017 on the

affairs, linking a number of prominent Turkish figures to those. The editor-in-chief of the online edition, Oğuz Güven, was arrested on 12 May 2017 in connection with an article on the "accidental" death of Mustafa Alper, the first public prosecutor to file an indictment about the Gülenist Terror Organization ( FETÖ). Güven was released pending trial on 14 June 2017. Today, the newspaper is struggling financially due to a low daily circulation figure that has fallen from more than 150,000 in the mid-1990s, in addition to plummeting advertising revenues as companies are not willing to advertise in media critical of the government.

MİT trucks scandal

Can Dündar prix RSF Strasbourg 17 novembre 2015

Following the appointment of new editor-in-chief Can Dündar, the newspaper on 29 May 2015 released detailed footage depicting trucks of the Turkish

National Intelligence Organization The National Intelligence Organization ( tr, Millî İstihbarat Teşkilatı, MİT) is the state intelligence agency of Turkey. Established in 1965 to replace National Security Service, its aim is to gather information about the current and po ...

(MİT) carrying weapons to

Syrian rebels A number of states and armed groups have involved themselves in the ongoing Syrian Civil War as belligerents. Syrian Arab Republic and allies A number of sources have emphasized that as of at least late-2015/early-2016 the Syrian Arab Republic ...

in neighboring

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. While the government faced calls to resign, an investigation began into ''Cumhuriyet'' for releasing the footage. Turkish President Erdoğan publicly targeted Dündar, stating: "I suppose the person who wrote this as an exclusive report will pay a heavy price for this." In spite of the threats, ''Cumhuriyet'' published further material on June 11, including photos and videos confirming that MİT trucks transported both weapons and militants between Turkey and various locations in neighboring

. In November, the newspaper was awarded the 2015

Reporters Without Borders Prize Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...

for its "independent and courageous journalism." Shortly thereafter, editor-in-chief Dündar and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gül were arrested on charges of being members of a terror organization,

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...

and revealing confidential documents, facing sentences up to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

Circulation and online edition

In 1924 Cumhuriyet sold 5,000-10,000 copies. On 7 May 1998, the newspaper launched its online edition. The print circulation figure was around 40,000 copies in May 2018.

Notable contributors (past and present)

Supplements

Supplements of the newspaper: *''Strateji'' (''Strategy''), Mondays *''Kitap'' (''Book''), Thursdays *''Bilim Teknoloji'' (''Science'' and Technology), Fridays *''Hafta Sonu'' (''Weekend''), Saturdays *''Pazar'' (''Sunday''), Sundays *''Gezi'' (''Travel''), every other Wednesday *''Tarım'' (''Agriculture''), once a month *''Yerel Yönetimler'' (''Local Governments'') *''Le Monde diplomatique Türkiye'' (''

Le Monde diplomatique ''Le Monde diplomatique'' (meaning "The Diplomatic World" in French) is a French monthly newspaper offering analysis and opinion on politics, culture, and current affairs. The publication is owned by Le Monde diplomatique SA, a subsidiary com ...

Turkey''), the first Monday of the month (since February 3, 2020)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cumhuriyet 1924 establishments in Turkey Daily newspapers published in Turkey Mass media freedom in Turkey Newspapers established in 1924 Newspapers published in Istanbul Şişli Turkish-language newspapers