''Sözcü'' (English: ''Spokesperson'') is a popular 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 ...

. ''Sözcü'' was first published on 27 June 2007 by Burak Akbay and is distributed nationwide. As of June 2018, it is one of the top-selling newspapers in Turkey, with around 300,000 copies sold daily.

Overview

Its origins go back to ''Gözcü'' (literally, ''Observer,'' published by Doğan Media Group) which began publication on 15 May 1996 and ceased publication on 1 April 2007. ''Gözcü'' was taken over by its employees and its name was changed to ''Sözcü''. In its first days the newspaper sold around 60,000 copies. By September 2008, the newspaper had an average circulation of 150,000. In December 2010 this number had reached 210,000. As a result of increasing political polarization, ''Sözcü'' has become one of the country's top-selling newspapers through its anti-government ( Justice and Development Party or AKP) stance. It is the highest-selling Turkish paper that openly criticizes the ruling party and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. ''Sözcü'' adopts a more

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

and Kemalist political orientation than other anti-AKP papers such as ''

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'' and ''

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''. An edition of ''Sözcü'' aimed at the Turks of Western Europe is printed in Germany.

''Korkusuz''

Another daily newspaper called Korkusuz (English: ''Fearless)'' has been published by the Sözcü Group since November 2014.

''AMK''

The daily sports newspaper AMK has been published by the Sözcü Group since June 2012. The name AMK is officially an acronym of ''Açık Mert Korkusuz'' (translated: Open, Valiant and Fearless) but this evoked some controversy, as the acronym is commonly understood to mean a profane phrase in Turkish.

Contributors (past and present)

* * Uğur Dündar * Emin Çölaşan * Mehmet Şehirli * * Murat Muratoğlu * Yekta Güngör Özden * Aybars Akkor * Kemal Baytaş * Ege Cansen * Coşkun Bel * * Necati Doğru * Süleyman Atmaca * * * Yasemin Candemir * Soner Yalçın * Bekir Coşkun * Mehtap Özcan Ertürk *

References

External links

* Newspapers published in Istanbul Turkish-language newspapers Publications established in 2007 2007 establishments in Turkey Daily newspapers published in Turkey {{turkey-newspaper-stub