Hasan Cemal

Hasan Cemal (born 1944) is a Turkish journalist and writer. He was the editor of ''Cumhuriyet'' from 1981 to 1992, and of ''Sabah'' from 1992 to 1998. In 2013 he resigned from the '' Milliyet'' newspaper after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had criticised his article supporting '' Milliyet'''s publication of minutes of a parliamentary visit to Abdullah Öcalan, and ''Milliyet'' suspended him and refused to publish his returning column. Hurriyet Daily News, 19 March 2013
Daily Milliyet parts ways with prominent journalist Cemal after İmralı leaks debate
/ref>

Cemal is the grandson of Djemal Pasha, one of the "Three Pashas" who led the Ottoman Empire during World War I. He is known for acknowledging and apologizing for the Armenian genocide, which was perpetrated in part by his grandfather and his colleagues. His 2012 book on the subject (written in response to the 2007 assassination of his friend Hrant Dink) is titled ''1915: Ermeni Soykırımı'' (English: ''1915: Armenian Genocide'').

Early life and education

Hasan Cemal was born in 1944 in Istanbul, Turkey Mother side Georgian and Circassian background. In 1965, Cemal graduated from Ankara University with a Political Science Degree.

Career

Cemal began working for the weekly '' Hakkı Devrim'' in 1969 and soon thereafter, he became an Ankara representative of the ''Cumhuriyet'' newspaper. In 1981, shortly after the military coup, that he supported, he was appointed chief editor of Cumhuriyet newspaper. He resigned in January 1992 in a dispute over editorial policy: "I tried to widen the spectrum, to keep the balance. But they (old-guard intellectuals) always resisted, calling us plotters, tools of big business and the United States".Hugh Pope, ''Los Angeles Times'', 12 May 1992
Media : It's News Vs. Nudes in the Turkish Press : The glitzy Sabah daily and the respected Cumhuriyet reflect clashing cultures at a continental crossroads.
/ref> He became the editor of the ''Sabah'' newspaper in May 1992, remaining in the position until 1998. From 1998 he worked for '' Milliyet''.

During the heightened tensions between the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Turkish government, Hasan Cemal would be noted for conducting interviews with notable PKK leaders such as Abdullah Öcalan and Murat Karayilan. In 2013 the '' Milliyet'' newspaper he wrote for suspended him for two weeks after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had criticised his article supporting '' Milliyet''s publication of minutes of a parliamentary visit to Öcalan. When ''Milliyet'' then refused to publish his returning column, he resigned. In 2018, he received a suspended sentence to a prison term of more than 3 months for his documentation of the withdrawal of the PKK in 2013.

He then started writing in the independent news website '' T24'' in 2013. He was awarded the Nieman Foundation for Journalism Louis Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism in 2015. A column he published on 12 August 2015 harshly criticising President Erdoğan, titled "The Responsibility for the Bloodshed Lies on the Sultan at the Palace" led him to be prosecuted for insulting the President. The prosecutor demanded a prison sentence of 4 years and 8 months for Cemal.

Armenian genocide

According to Dennis Papazian of the University of Michigan's Armenian Research Center, in the 1980s, Hasan Cemal supported the Turkish government's position denying the Armenian Genocide. After some Turkish diplomats were assassinated by the armed Armenian ASALA group, he however began an inquiry and eventually changed his mind. Following a trip to Armenia, where he visited the Armenian Genocide memorial, Hasan Cemal published a book entitled ''1915: The Armenian Genocide''. The book became a bestseller in Turkey. Cemal remarked in his book, "To deny the Genocide would mean to be an accomplice in this crime against humanity."

The book highlights Cemal's "personal transformation" and his experiences in Armenia. While Cemal was in Armenia, he had an opportunity to meet and have lunch with Armen Gevorkyan, the grandson of Artashes Gevorgyan, the man who assassinated his grandfather Djemal Pasha in 1922.

Cemal eventually apologized to all Armenians for the Armenian genocide for his grandfather's part in it. Cemal also has insisted that the Turkish government should also apologize to the Armenians for the Armenian Genocide.

Works

Some of Hasan Cemal's works include:
*''1915: Ermeni Soykırımı'' (English: ''1915: Armenian Genocide''; 2012)
**English edition translated by Liz Erçevik Amado and Irazca Geray, published by the Hrant Dink Foundation and the Gomidas Institute, 2015 (978-6056448-88-1).
*''Barışa Emanet Olun'' (English: ''Be One with Peace''; 2011)
*''Türkiye'nin Asker Sorunu'' (English: ''Turkey's Military Problem''; 2010)
*''Cumhuriyet'i Çok Sevmiştim'' (English: ''I Really Liked Cumhuriyet''; 2005)
*''Kürtler'' (English: ''Kurds''; 2004)
*''Kimse Kızmasın, Kendimi Yazdım'' (English: ''Don't Be Mad, I Wrote Myself''; 1999)
*''Özal Hikayesi'' (English: ''The Story of Özal''; 1989)
*''Tarihi Yaşarken Yakalamak'' (English: ''To Catch History Alive''; 1987)
*''Demokrasi Korkusu'' (English: ''Fear of Democracy''; 1986)
*''Tank Sesiyle Uyanmak'' (English: ''Waking Up to the Sound of Tanks''; 1986)

Awards

Some of Hasan Cemal's awards include:
*The ''Fıkra'' Award from the Doruktakiler ve Gazeteciler Cemiyeti (1989)
*Sedat Simavi Award for Journalist of the Year (1986)

See also

*List of visitors to Tsitsernakaberd

References

External links

*.
*
Hasan Cemal
at t24.com.tr

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cemal, Hasan
Turkish people of Georgian descent
Turkish people of Circassian descent
Journalists from Istanbul
1944 births
Ankara University alumni
Living people
20th-century Turkish journalists
21st-century Turkish journalists
Milliyet people