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

daily 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 ...

. ''Sözcü'' was first published on 27 June 2007 by Burak Akbay and is distributed nationwide. As of June 2018, it was 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 Doğan is both a masculine Turkish given name and a Turkish surname meaning ''Falcon''. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Doğan Abukay, Turkish experimental physicist and academic * Doğan Akhanlı (1957–2021) Turkish-German w ...

) 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'' became one of the country's top-selling newspapers through its anti-government (

Justice and Development Party Justice and Development Party may refer to several political parties, the best-known ones being: * Justice and Development Party (Morocco) * Justice and Development Party (Turkey) Justice and Development Party may also refer to: * Justice and Dev ...

or AKP) stance. It is the highest-selling Turkish paper that openly criticizes the ruling party and

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 ...

. ''Sözcü'' adopts a more

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

and

Kemalist Kemalism (, also archaically ''Kamâlizm'') or Atatürkism () is a political ideology based on the ideas of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder and first president of the Turkey, Republic of Turkey.Eric J. Zurcher, Turkey: A Modern History. Ne ...

political orientation than other anti-AKP newspapers such as ''

Cumhuriyet ''Cumhuriyet'' (; English: "Republic") is the oldest up-market Turkish daily newspaper. It has been described as "the most important independent public interest newspaper in contemporary Turkey". The newspaper was awarded the ''Freedom of Press ...

'' and ''

BirGün ''BirGün'' (''One Day'') is an Istanbul-based Turkish left-wing daily. The paper was founded in 2004 by a group of Turkish intellectuals. The most important point of the newspaper is that it is not owned by any parent company or conglomerate. ...

''. 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. On 5 January 2019, the newspaper ceased to be published.

Sözcü TV

Sözcü TV or shortened as SZC TV, began web broadcasting in 2019 and on YouTube in 2021. It acquired Sivas SRT’s licence in 2020 but faced delays in RTÜK’s logo approval, which was granted in July 2021. The channel started test broadcasts the same month and officially launched on 1 March 2023.

Contributors (past and present)

* *

Uğur Dündar Uğur Dündar (born 28 August 1943) is a Turkish journalist, anchorman, political commentator, and writer. He was born in Akören village of Silivri district in Istanbul Province. He graduated from Istanbul University's Institute of Journalism. ...

* Emin Çölaşan * *

Yekta Güngör Özden Yekta Güngör Özden (born 1932) is a Turkish people, Turkish judge, and former president of the Constitutional Court of Turkey. He was born in Niksar, a town in Tokat Province, Tokat province of Turkey, in 1932. He was the president of the Const ...

* * * *

Soner Yalçın Soner Yalçın (born January 1, 1966) is a Turkish journalist and writer. The co-founder of the news website odatv, he was arrested in February 2011 along with other odatv journalists and charged with links to the Ergenekon organization. He was ...

Bekir Coşkun Bekir Coşkun (1945 – 18 October 2020) was a Turkish people, Turkish journalist, writer and columnist for leading Turkish daily, ''Cumhuriyet''. He was a good friend of Emin Çölaşan, with whom he had worked in the newspaper ''Hürriyet'' befo ...

References

External links

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