''Sabah'' is a Turkish
daily newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written 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 politics, business, spor ...
, with a circulation of around 330,000 as of 2011. Its name means "morning" in
Turkish.
The newspaper was founded in İzmir by
Dinç Bilgin
Dinç Bilgin (born 1940) is a Turkish businessman who built up a media empire which was voluntarily handed over to the Turkish government in 2008 over alleged financial irregularities relating to Etibank. These companies were later sold by TMSF fo ...
on 22 April 1985.
In 2007, the government of Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to ...
seized the newspaper, citing a legal document that had not been disclosed to authorities when ''Sabah'' was sold in 2001. Ownership of the newspaper was given to the
Savings Deposit Insurance Fund of Turkey. Some of the newspaper's staffers were fired, and the paper was then sold to the
Turkuvaz Media Group
Turkuvaz Media Group is a Turkish media company. The company was sold to Çalık Holding in Aşiyan, Yıldız, Beşiktaş, Istanbul 2008. As of 2014 the company operates under Kemerburgaz, Eyüp, Göktürk, İstanbul in Kalyon Group. The compa ...
belonging to
Çalık Holding
Çalık Holding is a Turkish company that has been operating in the energy, construction, mining, textile, finance, and telecom sectors since the 1980s. Founder and chairman Ahmet Çalık began his business career in the textile industry, foundi ...
whose CEO,
Berat Albayrak
Berat Albayrak ( born 21 February 1978) is a Turkish businessman and former politician, and the son-in-law of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He is a former CEO of Çalık Holding. He was a member of parliament from Istanbul in the 25th ...
, is the son-in-law of Erdoğan and whose chairman,
Ahmet Çalık
Ahmet Çalık is a Turkish businessman who is the chairman of Çalık Holding. He was made a government minister in Turkmenistan by Saparmurat Niyazov.
He is married with four children and lives in Istanbul.
According to '' Forbes'', his for ...
, has been described as a "close associate" of Erdoğan. The $1.1bn sale aroused substantial controversy in Turkey, not least because it was partially financed by $750m of loans from two state banks,
VakıfBank and
Halkbank, and was sold for the minimum price, with Çalık Holding the sole bidder.
[Reuters, 12 January 2008]
Turkey eyes reform of media ownership law -paper
/ref> Before the 2007 seizing, it was a pro-Kemalist
Kemalism ( tr, Kemalizm, also archaically ''Kamâlizm''), also known as Atatürkism ( tr, Atatürkçülük, Atatürkçü düşünce), or The Six Arrows ( tr, Altı Ok), is the founding official ideology of the Republic of Turkey.Eric J. Zurcher ...
, liberal newspaper with its politicial position being close to centre-right
Centre-right politics lean to the right of the political spectrum, but are closer to the centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure and the economy, moving away from the nobility and ...
.
According to Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, who was ''Sabahs 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 ...
bureau chief until the takeover, from then on the newspaper took on "an unwavering pro-government line."
The Kalyon Group took over the newspaper in 2013.
Kalyon Group is the current publisher, while Erdal Şafak is the editor-in-chief.The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' translated into Turkish. The partnership with ''The New York Times'' was terminated in 2014 without any formal explanation given.
Notable contributors (past and present)
*Engin Ardıç
Engin Ardıç (born 1 February 1952) is a Turkish writer and a newspaper columnist for the Sabah newspaper. He also worked as a television commentator in the 1990s.
Biography
Ardıç was born on 1 February 1952 in Trabzon, a coastal city on th ...
, journalist
*
* Mehmet Barlas, columnist
*Mehmet Ali Birand
Mehmet Ali Birand (9 December 1941 – 17 January 2013) was a Turkish journalist, political commentator and writer.
Biography
He was born to İzzet and his wife Mürvet on 9 December 1941 in Beyoğlu, Istanbul. His mother was of Kurdish de ...
(1941–2013), journalist
*
* Salih Memecan, cartoonist
* Hıncal Uluç, journalist
*Ahmet Vardar
Ahmet Vardar (1937 – 25 February 2010) was a notable Turkish journalist and television presenter.
Biography
Vardar was born 1937 in Istanbul. He worked for many newspapers, the longest for the daily ''Sabah''. He served for many years as the ...
(1937–2010), journalist
References
External links
*
Sabah Europe
Sabah Deutsch
The newspaper's web site
*https://twitter.com/asliaydintasbas
*
Turkish-language newspapers
Publications established in 1985
Newspapers published in Istanbul
1985 establishments in Turkey
Daily newspapers published in Turkey
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