Anadolu Agency ( tr, Anadolu Ajansı, ; abbreviated AA) is a
state-run news agency headquartered 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 ...
,
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 ...
.
History
The Anadolu Agency was founded in 1920 during the
Turkish War of Independence
The Turkish War of Independence "War of Liberation", also known figuratively as ''İstiklâl Harbi'' "Independence War" or ''Millî Mücadele'' "National Struggle" (19 May 1919 – 24 July 1923) was a series of military campaigns waged by th ...
by the order of
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. As the empire's capital – İstanbul – was under the caliph's control, all newspapers were also under the caliph's rule along with British occupiers, and it was necessary for the revolutionary government to establish a communication and news network for Anatolia and Rumeli. Journalist
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 ...
and writer
Halide Edip
In chemistry, a halide (rarely halogenide) is a binary chemical compound, of which one part is a halogen atom and the other part is an element or radical that is less electronegative (or more electropositive) than the halogen, to make a fluor ...
, fleeing the
occupied capital, met in
Geyve
Geyve is a town in Sakarya Province in the Marmara region of Turkey. The closest international airport is Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, from Geyve. It is the third largest town of Sakarya Province in terms of area. Geyve is l ...
and concluded that a new Turkish press agency was needed. The agency was officially launched on April 6, 1920, 17 days before the
Turkish Grand National Assembly
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( tr, ), usually referred to simply as the TBMM or Parliament ( tr, or ''Parlamento''), is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Consti ...
convened for the first time. It announced the first legislation passed by the Assembly, which established the Republic of Turkey.
After the
Justice and Development Party (AKP) took power, AA and the
Turkish Radio and Television Corporation
The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT; Turkish : ) is the national public broadcaster of Turkey, founded in 1964. TRT was for many years the only television and radio provider in Turkey. Before the introduction of commercial radio i ...
(TRT) were both restructured to more closely reflect the government line. According to a 2016 academic article, "these public news producers, especially during the most recent term of the AKP government, have been controlled by officials from a small network close to the party leadership."
See also
*
List of news agencies News agencies were created to provide newspapers with information about a wide variety of news events happening around the world. Initially the agencies were meant to provide the news items only to newspapers, but with the passage of time the rapidl ...
References
External links
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{{authority control
News agencies based in Turkey
1920 establishments in the Ottoman Empire