Osman Oktay Ekşi (born 7 December 1932) is a Turkish

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 ...

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. He has spent much of his career at the newspaper ''

Hürriyet ''Hürriyet'' (, ''Liberty'') is one of the major Turkish newspapers, founded in 1948. , it had the highest circulation of any newspaper in Turkey at around 319,000. ''Hürriyet'' has a mainstream, liberal and conservative outlook. ''Hürriyet ...

'', and was its Chief Columnist from 1974 to 1983 and from 1985 to 2010. A founding member and vice chairman of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

(SODEP), he was elected as a member of Parliament for the

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) in the 2011 general election.

Journalism career

He started his journalism career as a reporter for the Ankara News Agency (ANKA) in 1952. Between 1952 and 1954, he was the Ankara Correspondent for '' Dünya'' ("World"), a daily newspaper. He served as Ankara Bureau Chief of Dünya between 1954 and 1960. After serving as local secretary at the Turkish Consulate General in London from 1962 to 1996, he returned to Turkey in 1966 to take up a job as Ankara bureau chief of ''Yeni Gazete'' daily (an affiliate of ''

'' daily) which lasted until 1970. After working one year (between 1970-1971) at the Turkish Radio and Television Network (TRT) he joined ''Hurriyet'' newspaper in 1971 in Ankara as a correspondent at large. He became Ankara bureau chief in 1972, and in 1974 he was appointed as the chief (leading) columnist of ''Hürriyet''. He fulfilled this position until 1983, during which time (between 1974 and 1982) he was general manager of Hürriyet News Agency ("Hürriyet Haber Ajansı"). In 1984, Ekşi became chief (leading) columnist of '' Güneş'' daily but rejoined ''

'' which had the largest circulation of any Turkish paper in 1985, serving as chief (leading) columnist until 2010. In 2010 Oktay Ekşi resigned from ''Hürriyet'' daily when one of his articles was taken as a personal insult by the then Prime Minister. Ekşi wrote that the plan to build hydroelectric complexes in hundreds of locations in Turkey, including Rize reflected a “mindset of one willing to sell his own mother”. The then

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the List of presidents of Turkey, 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as Lis ...

, Energy and Natural Resources Minister

Taner Yıldız Taner Yıldız (born 3 April 1962 in Devecipınar, Boğazlıyan, Yozgat Province) is a Turkish politician. He is a member of the Justice and Development Party and served as the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources between 2009 and 2015. T ...

and Environment and Forestry Minister

Veysel Eroğlu Veysel Eroğlu (born 18 August 1948) is a Member of Parliament for Afyonkarahisar of the ruling Justice and Development Party and a former Minister of Forestry and Water of Turkey. Early life Eroğlu was born on 18 August 1948 in the Şuhu ...

reacted negatively to this criticism. From 1988 to 2010, Oktay Ekşi was the chairman and leading founding member of the (Turkish) Press Council. He was also the Vice President and founding member of the World Association of Press Councils (WAPC) from 1992 to 2002. In 2002, Ekşi was elected president of the WAPC, a position which he served until 2009. Also between 1996 and 1998 he was the founding chairman and leading founding member of Basın Enstitüsü Derneği (the National Committee of International Press Institute) (IPI).

Political career

In 1961, Oktay Ekşi was elected as a member of the press to the Constituent Assembly which drafted and passed the

Turkish Constitution of 1961 The Constitution of 1961, officially titled the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Anayasası), was the fundamental law of Turkey from 1961 to 1982. It was introduced following the 1960 ''coup d'état'', replacin ...

. In 1983 until 1984, Ekşi served as vice chairman and founding member of the

(SODEP). Oktay Ekşi was elected as a member of Parliament for the

in the 2011 general election. He chaired the opening session of the 24th parliamentary term as the oldest Member of Parliament.

Awards

Oktay Ekşi received numerous awards from various journalistic associations. In addition, he was awarded the Paul Harris Award by the 2430 Region of Rotary International in 1997. In 2003, Istanbul University gave Oktay Ekşi an honorary doctorate, in 2006 Ekşi was given a Distinguished Service Award by Middle East Technical University, and in 2012 he was awarded the "Atatürk Award" by the Atatürk Society of America.

Personal life

Oktay Ekşi graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Ankara (1967). Ekşi founded the first local direct democracy platform in 1991 in Mesüdiye. The "Mesüdiye Convention", which has convened four times per annum for more than 25 years, is a forum for citizens to discuss challenges, solutions and development plans for Mesüdiye. Oktay Ekşi established the largest village library in Turkey (with 20,978 books as of March 2018). He is also the author of “Parlamento mu, Kanun Fabrikasi mı” (“Is it a Parliament, or a Law Making Factory”) published in 2013 and “Gazetecilikte Geçen O YILLAR” (“My life as a journalist in THOSE years”) published in 2017. His book “AYSEL, Bir Atatürk Kızının Hikayesi” (“AYSEL, The Story of a Daughter of Ataturk”) was published in March 2018. Oktay Ekşi was married to Professor Dr. Aysel Ekşi. He has two sons Mehmet and Özgür and two grandchildren Sibel and Sinan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eksi, Oktay 1932 births Living people 20th-century Turkish journalists Republican People's Party (Turkey) politicians Hürriyet people Güneş (newspaper) people Ankara University Faculty of Law alumni Turkish columnists Deputies of Istanbul Social Democracy Party (Turkey) politicians 20th-century Turkish politicians Members of the 24th Parliament of Turkey 21st-century Turkish journalists