İsmail Saymaz

İsmail Saymaz (born 11 July 1980, in Rize İletişim Yayınevi
İsmail Saymaz
/ref>) is a Turkish investigative journalist and writer for the newspaper ''Sözcü''. He has published articles and books on the Turkish deep state and Ergenekon, including a 2011 book on links between the 2007 Zirve Publishing House massacre and the 2006 killing of Andrea Santoro, and another 2011 book on former police chief Hanefi Avcı. He has won a number of awards for his work.

Career

At the age of 15, Saymaz hosted literature programs on local radios. Later, he participated in discussion programs on local television channels. He first started his journalism career in Rize. He then worked for local newspapers in cities such as İstanbul and Konya. Saymaz began working at '' Radikal'' in 2002, working there its shut down on 25 March 2016.

Saymaz has reported and published books on issues such as human rights violations and freedom. He was prosecuted in nearly twenty cases with a prison sentence of more than a hundred years for various news reports, main one being the Erzincan case. He uncovered the footage of the beating of Ali İsmail Korkmaz, who lost his life during the Gezi Park protests, and shared it with the public. In 2014, he was included in the list of "100 Press Heroes" of the year by Reporters Without Borders. On October 24, 2016, while he was a reporter for Hürriyet newspaper, he conducted an interview with David Keynes, who holds the patent of ''ByLock'', the communication application used by FETÖ/PDY members. After this interview, an investigation was opened against the newspaper and Saymaz was interrogated. In addition, this interview was considered as "evidence" in FETÖ/PDY investigations. Saymaz was awarded by the Turkish Journalists' Association for this interview.

On 17 March 2020, Saymaz announced that he quit his job at ''Hürriyet''. On May 1, 2020, he announced that he left ''Best FM'', where he hosted the program ''Bunu Ben de Söylerim''. In May 2020, he joined ''Halk TV'' and began appearing on the channel with the program ''Neyse O''. In September 2020, he signed an agreement with ''Sözcü'' and started working as a reporter and commentator for the newspaper. In August 2021, he left Sözcü and moved to Halk TV. On April 10, 2023, he left Halk TV and returned to Sözcü.

Political views

Saymaz's political and social views have changed throughout his career; while his high school years were dominated by mostly nationalist and patriotic ideologies, his views drastically changed during his university life, in which he adopted a leftist mindset in which he criticized Kemalism. While working at '' Radikal'', Saymaz became famous for his Ergenekon news, increasing his fame by the following years, Saymaz came to popularity once again especially during the 15 July process with his criticism of the trials and his leave of his former leftist identity for more republican, Kemalist and anti-immigrant views.

He criticized Turkish immigration measures, stating that the country's borders had turned into a roadblock due to the Syria policy and that some immigrants had become suicide bombers. After accusing his colleagues of being pro-Western and not feeling any sense of belonging to their people, he was accused of being a member of pro-AKP policy think-tank SETA.

Personal life

Saymaz, whose family is originally from Pazaryolu

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases