''Aydınlık'' ("Clarify" or "Enlightenment" in Turkish) is the

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, 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 poli ...

of the

Patriotic Party The Patriotic Party (), also known as the Patriot Party or, in English, as the Reform Party, was a political movement in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the period of the Four-Year Sejm (Great Sejm) of 1788–1792, whose chief achieveme ...

(''Vatan Partisi''). Originally launched as a weekly newspaper in 1921, it has been repeatedly closed and relaunched, most recently in 2011.

History

Early history

''Aydınlık'' was launched in 1921 as the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

's first socialist newspaper (a weekly); it was associated with the Communist Party of Turkey. It was closed down in 1925. In the interim it published authors such as

Nâzım Hikmet Mehmed Nâzım Ran (17 January 1902 – 3 June 1963), Note: 403 Forbidden error received 10 October 2022. commonly known as Nâzım Hikmet (), was a Turkish people, Turkish poet, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, director, and memoirist. ...

, Şevket Süreyya Aydemir, Hasan Âli and Kerim Sadi. In November 1968 it was relaunched as a monthly magazine, by

Doğu Perinçek Doğu Perinçek (; born 17 June 1942) is a Turkish politician, doctor of law and former communist revolutionary who has been chairman of the left-wing nationalist Patriotic Party since 2015. He was also a member of the Talat Pasha Committee, an ...

and Vahap Erdoğdu of the Workers Party of Turkey, with contributors including İbrahim Kaypakkaya. It was closed in 1971 after the

1971 Turkish coup d'état The 1971 Turkish military memorandum (), issued on 12 March that year, was the second military intervention to take place in the Republic of Turkey, coming 11 years after its 1960 predecessor. It is known as the "coup by memorandum", which the mi ...

. It was relaunched in November 1974 as a weekly, but was shut down under martial law in February 1975. It resumed publication in October when martial law was lifted, as a monthly magazine. On 1 March 1978 ''Aydınlık'' was relaunched as a daily newspaper, but was closed down immediately after the September

1980 Turkish coup d'état The 1980 Turkish coup d'état (), headed by Chief of the General Staff General Kenan Evren, was the third coup d'état in the history of the Republic of Turkey, the previous having been the 1960 coup and the 1971 coup by memorandum. During ...

Recent history

After a 13-year absence the daily ''Aydınlık'' resumed publication on 1 May 1993. However, in 1994 the decision was made to again switch to a weekly format. In 2009 ''Aydınlık'' was banned for 1 month for allegedly "spreading propaganda for a terrorist organization." Earlier in the year ''Aydınlık'' had published details of wiretapped conversations between Prime Minister

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...

and North Cyprus's Mehmet Ali Talat. Prosecutors in the

Ergenekon trials The Ergenekon trials or the Ergenekon conspiracy, were a series of high-profile trials which took place in 2008–2016 in Turkey in which 275 people, including military officers, journalists and opposition lawmakers, all alleged members of Erge ...

later alleged that the recording came from retired General Levent Ersöz. On 1 March 2011, ''Aydınlık'' became a daily again. Since 16 April 2012 the newspaper's European edition is published five days a week in 8 European countries. In December 2011, ''Aydınlıks owner, Mehmet Sabuncu, was arrested as part of the Ergenekon investigation. In November 2014, Sabuncu was again appointed as the editor-in-chief of the newspaper.

References

External links

Website
*Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada

9 October 2003, TUR41959.E, ccessed 22 June 2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Aydinlik Newspapers published in Istanbul Turkish-language newspapers Newspapers established in 1921 1921 establishments in the Ottoman Empire Mass media freedom in Turkey Socialist newspapers Daily newspapers published in Turkey Weekly newspapers published in Turkey