Leyla İpekçi (born 13 October 1966) is a Turkish journalist, screenwriter, and columnist.

Life

Leyla İpekçi, the niece of

Abdi İpekçi Abdi İpekçi (9 August 1929 – 1 February 1979) was a Turkish journalist, intellectual and human rights activist. He was murdered when he was editor-in-chief of one of the main Turkish daily newspapers '' Milliyet'' which then had a cent ...

, graduated from Saint Michel French High School and completed her studies in Sociology at

Boğaziçi University Boğaziçi University (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Boğaziçi Üniversitesi''), also known as Bosphorus University, is a Public university, public research university in Istanbul, Turkey, historically tied to a former American educational insti ...

. In June 1999, she married director

Semih Kaplanoğlu Semih Kaplanoğlu (born 4 April 1963) is a Turkish people, Turkish screenwriter, film director and producer. Life and career In 1984, Kaplanoğlu moved to Istanbul and worked for a couple of years as a copywriter for advertising companies like G ...

Writing career

She worked as an author for ''

Yeni Yüzyıl ''Yeni Yüzyıl'' (''New Century'') was a Turkish newspaper. It was published from 1994 to 1999, closing down due to legal and financial problems. It had been acquired in August 1998 from Dinç Bilgin's Sabah group by Korkmaz Yiğit Korkmaz Yi� ...

'' in 1995 and ''

Hürriyet ''Hürriyet'' (, ''Liberty'') is a major List of newspapers in Turkey, Turkish newspaper, founded in 1948. it had the highest circulation of any newspaper in Turkey at around 319,000. ''Hürriyet'' combines entertainment with news coverage and ...

'' in 1996. She has also published articles in Gazetepazar, where she was in charge of the edition management. She wrote for ''

Radikal ''Radikal'' () was a daily liberal Turkish language newspaper, published in Istanbul. From 1996 it was published by Aydın Doğan's Doğan Media Group. Although Radikal did not endorse a particular political alignment, it was generally consider ...

'' newspaper until the beginning of 2006, and wrote columns for '' Zaman'' newspaper for 2.5 years. Later, in June 2008, she transferred to ''

Taraf ''Taraf'' ("Side" in Turkish) was a liberal newspaper in Turkey. It had distinguished itself by opposing interference by the Turkish military in the country's social and political affairs. It was distributed nationwide, and had been in circula ...

'' newspaper. İpekçi, who wrote the column "Saatler" for ''Taraf'' for three years, started publishing her articles in ''Zaman'' newspaper in July 2011 where she worked until 2013.

Gülen movement ties

Leyla İpekçi wrote for both '' Zaman'' and ''

'', the two major newspapers affiliated with the

Gülen movement The Gülen movement () or Hizmet movement () is an Islamist fraternal movement. It is a sub-sect of Sunni Islam based on a Nursian theological perspective as reflected in Fethullah Gülen's religious teachings. It is referred to by its membe ...

. These periodicals facilitated the movement's outreach to a broader public as they gained power in Turkey. The Turkish government closed down both newspapers after the

2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt In the evening of 15 July 2016, a faction within the Turkish Armed Forces, organized as the Peace at Home Council, attempted a coup d'état against state institutions, including the government and president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. They attempted ...

, for which they held the

responsible. İpekçi also participated in the events organized by the Journalists and Writers Foundation azeteciler ve Yazarlar Vakfıwhere Gülen serves as the honorary President. Oray Eğin, columnist of ''

Akşam ''Akşam'' (''Evening'') is a Turkish newspaper founded in 1918, owned by Zeki Yeşildağ's Türk Medya Grup (T Medya Yatırım San. ve Tic. AŞ.) since 2013. In 2013 it had a circulation of around 100,000. History ''Akşams founders in 1918 inc ...

'' newspaper, stated in his article dated 26 June 2008, that "she had been educated in the United States by a scholarship with the help of Gülen," to which Leyla İpekçi responded by saying: "I have not stepped in America in my life. I find this kind of news quite ugly." and announced that she would seek her legal rights against this article. For her article "The biggest obstacle in front of the new CHP", published in ''Taraf'' on 3 April 2009, a complaint was filed against her, which was found groundless by the Press Council.

Awards

*1998: Winner of Milliyet Art Magazine's "First Book First Edition" competition with her book "Maya" *2007:

Turkish Authors' Association The Turkish Authors' Association (, abbreviated as TYB) is an association for writers in Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thra ...

"Author of the Year" award *2011: 'Best Book of the Year' award from Association of Literary Arts and Cultural Studies (ESKADER) for the book 'Gecenin İkinci Rüyası'

Works

*Maya *Sinan'ın Mayası *İlk Kötülük *Ateş ve Bahçe *Başkası Olduğun Yer *Şölen Sofrası / Kadın-Erkek İlişkilerine and Benliğe Dair Denemeler *Bir Sevgili Gibi Yaşamak / Savaş, Kimlik and Vicdana Dair *Gecenin İkinci Rüyası *5 Vakit İstanbul (written together with Ümit Meriç, Sadettin Ökten, Senai Demirci and Hüseyin Hatemi) *Şehrim Aşk

References

External links

Her column on Taraf newspaper

Her writing on Zaman's Turkuaz appendix

An article about her book 'Başkası Olduğun Yer'- Zaman, 2006
*YAYINLARI, TİMAŞ

{{DEFAULTSORT:İpekçi, Leyla 1966 births Turkish female screenwriters Boğaziçi University alumni Living people Zaman (newspaper) people