Serhat Bucak assessed the historical development of the Kurdish press, saying he was at the center of this process in the 1990s as the publisher of Yeni Ülke.
Bucak spoke to ANF about a struggle shaped through great sacrifices, one that laid the foundation for today’s media structure.
Was there no long-running publication between 1960 and 1980?
No, there was not. There was no long-running publication at all. Most lasted only three or four months.
After the 1971 military memorandum, newspapers and journals linked to organized Kurdish movements began to appear in 1974. Among them were Özgürlük Yolu, Rizgari, Xebat, Roja Welat, Tirêj, Kawa and Ala Rizgari.
Was there any newspaper or journal that made a major impact between 1980 and 1990?
No. There was Özgür Gelecek under the direction of Mehmet Bayrak, launched in 1989. Before that, in Istanbul, a journal called Toplumsal Diriliş was published.
After the killing of Esat Oktay Yildiran on a bus in Kısıklı, Toplumsal Diriliş came under pressure. Its owner, editor-in-chief and staff were arrested as defendants.
1990: A new search, Halk Gerçeği and the pressure of emergency rule
With 1990, the serhildans had begun, and in that period Halk Gerçeği was launched by IMECE Limited Company. Its owner was İsmet Ateş, and Hüseyin Aykol was editor-in-chief. İsmail Saffet was also involved. It was published jointly by the Turkish left and the Kurdish movement.
At that time, immediately after the popular uprisings in Cizre and Silopi, Decrees 424, 425 and 430 were issued. Under these decrees, the Regional Governor of the State of Emergency was authorized not only to shut down newspapers in the State of Emergency region, but newspapers published across Turkey. They were not only closing newspapers, they were also shutting down the printing houses that printed them.
So, under these decrees, the Regional Governor of the State of Emergency could intervene even against newspapers outside the emergency rule region?
For example, Halk Gerçeği was shut down, and the printing house of Serdar Ilicak that printed it was also closed for a period. Immediately afterward, Yeni Halk Gerçeği was launched, but it too did not last long. Its owner was Ismet Ateş, while Günay Aslan was editor-in-chief.
Meanwhile, some people came from Europe and met with Günay Aslan. He then went to Europe and made certain contacts there. According to his own account, and I am recounting it because he has spoken openly about it, the idea of launching a weekly newspaper came onto the agenda. They came to IMECE and approached us.
Turning point with Yeni Ülke: Continuity and a new voice
What was your position in IMECE?
IMECE Limited Company was founded by Ismet Ateş, Hüseyin Aykol, Zübeyir Aydar and myself. We all held equal shares. Mine was 25 percent, Hüseyin Aykol had 25 percent, Ismet Ateş had 25 percent and Zübeyir Aydar had 25 percent.
Günay Aslan approached us and said, “Let us publish a newspaper.” At that point, Yeni Ülke began publication as a weekly on October 20, 1990, with me as publisher and Günay Aslan as editor-in-chief.
Of course, we were still under censorship. There was enormous pressure on us. For example, we could not use the word Kurdistan; we wrote it as “K….” Some of our issues came out with blank pages because of Decrees 424, 425 and 430.
Meanwhile, Deng magazine was launched again. The circle around the Kurdistan Socialist Party published Deng. Hikmet Çetin and Kamil Ermiş were arrested at the time. Ercan Kanar, Eren Keskin and I served as their lawyers.
Deng did not practice self-censorship; it wrote directly in Kurdish. But we, as a precaution, used Aesopian language. In 1991, after the Anti-Terror Law came into force and, most importantly, after the ban on publishing in “foreign languages” under Law No. 2932 was lifted, we began using the word Kurdistan without censorship. We no longer used Aesopian language.
Among the newspaper’s writers was Ahmed Arif. His piece “Evlerinin Önü” was published there. Serafettin Elci wrote, Mehdi Zana wrote, Tarik Ziya Ekinci wrote, Hasan Askar Gürgöz wrote, and Cemil Gündoğan wrote.
It was a newspaper where intellectuals from various Kurdish circles contributed. There were criticisms and reactions. Some said the newspaper was too liberal.
But there was also this reality: bringing together so many different worldviews was not easy. We brought all of them together. There was no such voice before; we created that voice.
For example, Ali Firat was writing. I often saw Ali Firat at the courts while, as publisher of the newspaper, I was giving statements to prosecutors every week.
I’m curious about that. If I’m not mistaken, the Interior Minister at the time, Ismet Sezgin, used to say, “We are after Ali Firat.”
Ali Firat’s articles were also ending up before prosecutors. In fact, they asked me for the first time: “Who is Ali Firat?” I said, “A writer who sends me articles from prison.” They asked, “From where does he send them?” I said, “They arrive by mail, there is not even an address on them.” We received them and published them. Then the prosecutor told me: “Keep hiding it if you want, we know who Ali Firat is.”
At the time, we had a slogan: “Read Yeni Ülke before the prosecutors do.”
Very interestingly, seizure orders were sometimes issued against Yeni Ülke while it was still at the printing house. Of course, we took precautions. The newspapers reached Kurdistan and were distributed there. We had bureaus in Kurdistan, centered in Diyarbakır, with offices in Cizre, Batman and Van. We also had bureaus in the Urfa region.
All our sources came from news arriving from Kurdistan. It was the era of the serhildans. It was a period of rising Kurdish freedom struggle.
Up to the 16th issue, Günay Aslan served as editor-in-chief. After the 16th issue, Hüseyin Aykol became our editor-in-chief. Our news editor was Hüseyin Kalkan. Our friend Hacer was responsible for the women’s page. Kazım Gündoğan was responsible for labor and union coverage.
Yeni Ülke published 135 issues. It was a newspaper with continuity. When it reached Kurdistan, it sold out immediately. There was an Ankara bureau, where the late Sema Yüce worked. We had a friend named Sinan there, and Ali Manaz also worked there.
Let me put it this way in summary: Yeni Ülke was the womb from which the daily and weekly newspapers that came later were born. They all emerged from Yeni Ülke.
I will never forget that after the killing of Vedat Aydin, an investigation was also opened against me. I was held in custody for a week in Gayrettepe in Istanbul, then I went to Diyarbakır. While giving testimony to the prosecutor there, an assistant prosecutor asked me: “By Yeni Ülke, do you mean Kurdistan?”
I said: “We do not mean Kurdistan or anything of the sort. If we had meant Kurdistan, I am bold enough that I would have written it openly.”
Yeni Ülke stood out to everyone. There was, for example, a meeting attended by Nazli Ilicak, Ilhan Selcuk and Yalcin Kucuk. I spoke with Nazlı Ilıcak at length. At the end she said to me: “Mr. Serhat, but we are against the establishment of a new country.”
And I replied: “Ms. Nazlı, we founded Yeni Ülke in Babıali.”
At first our bureau was the bureau of Halk Gerçeği, and later we moved to Talas Han. At that point, publishing Yeni Ülke as a daily newspaper had reached a new stage.
Shift to a daily: Public support and solidarity campaigns
How did the transition to a daily newspaper happen?
There was demand, both from the public and from the newspaper’s leadership, for Yeni Ülke to become a daily. We launched a fundraising campaign for that purpose, and support began arriving from Kurdistan. I will never forget that one person sent 10,000 lira from Mazıdağı along with a letter saying: “My means are limited, so I could only send this much. Please accept it.” It was very important, deeply important.
We then moved to publish Yeni Ülke as a daily. We organized two solidarity nights in Europe. Hüseyin Aykol attended the event in Essen, while Leyla Zana and I went to the one in Giessen.
Support for the daily newspaper was collected from attendees at both events.
At the same time, we were looking for an editor-in-chief. I asked the late Hüseyin Aykol, “Hüseyin, do you think we can carry this newspaper as a daily? A daily newspaper is something significant.”
Meanwhile, I went to Ankara for meetings and visited Ahmet Kahraman, who was then Ankara representative of Güneş newspaper. I made him an offer: “We are going daily. Would you come and serve as editor-in-chief of our newspaper?”
He said, “I’m still with Güneş, still working in its Ankara bureau.” Fifteen days later, Güneş was shut down due to financial difficulties.
After the night in Giessen, before I had even returned from Germany to Istanbul, in fact on the same day, February 24, our Batman representative Cengiz Altun was killed in an attack by Hizb-i Contra. From the newspaper, Ramazan Ülek, Hüseyin Aykol and a team went to Batman.
After the killing of Halit Güngen, Diyarbakır correspondent for 2000’e Doğru, they immediately turned toward Cengiz Altun.
Cengiz Altun had also reported on this clandestine contra structure. As he was leaving home in the morning, he was shot in crossfire by two men. He was alone.
In truth, one of our greatest weaknesses was our lack of precautions, our lack of organization. The enemy was coming after us, and we were not taking sufficient measures. We lost Cengiz.
After losing Cengiz, we held a press conference in Istanbul. I spoke at length there. Ismet Sezgin and Suleyman Demirel were saying: “They are divided in two, one is Özgür Gündem, one is Yeni Ülke; they are fighting each other.” In fact, that was not true at all. I was both publisher of Yeni Ülke and one of the partners in Ülkem Press Limited Company, founded for the launch of Özgür Gündem.
What we said was this: Yeni Ülke is the voice, the ear and the eye of the freedom struggle in Kurdistan. We are bringing all human rights violations in Kurdistan onto the agenda.
And of course, Yeni Ülke continued publishing. With its European edition, its circulation exceeded 50,000. And when Özgür Gündem began publishing, we were providing it with direct financial support.
The sage of Kurdish journalism, Musa Anter, was also writing there, right?
Of course, Uncle Musa was writing in Yeni Ülke. Hüseyin Deniz was on Yeni Ülke’s culture page.
Let me speak about Apê Musa. He was our elder. He was older than us in age. He was like a grandfather, like an uncle to everyone. And he was literally my own uncle on my father’s side. I always felt my father’s presence in him.
He had come to Istanbul in 1989. Unfortunately, certain things had been done against him at the time, even a leaflet had been distributed, but he never spoke to us about that leaflet.
His son Anter had come as well. He bought a house in Maltepe, Istanbul, and stayed there. We took care of all his needs, coal for heating, telephone bills, electricity bills, even his pocket money.
Apê Musa wrote both in Yeni Ülke and in Özgür Politika. He was deeply loved by everyone, a city chronicler of the Kurds whose writings were closely followed. Apê Musa also wrote for Özgür Gündem and would go back and forth there as well.
In our conversations, for example, we would speak about the period of the 1991 elections when I was a first-ranked candidate from Urfa’s second district.
As you just mentioned, his pioneering role at Ileri Yurt and his writings in other newspapers often came up. Those papers had circulations of 1,000–2,000, but as you said, Yeni Ülke reached around 50,000. Did Musa Anter ever speak about how far the Kurdish press had come?
Of course. Especially after Tilki Selim was released from Bartın Prison, a dinner was held in his honor. He and Apê Musa were sitting side by side in Yenikapı. Selim, who sometimes made striking remarks, turned to Apê Musa and said: “Uncle Musa, you did nothing. You put the whole burden on our shoulders.”
Would Apê Musa let that pass? Never. He replied: “My son, we brought the barometer from minus fifteen to zero. Now go on, make an effort and take it from zero to plus fifteen yourselves.” Selim fell silent and had no reply.
And of course Apê Musa was very happy. He took pride in how far things had come. For example, he was also among the founders of the People’s Labor Party. At its first extraordinary congress, he was carried to the podium on people’s shoulders and gave speeches. Everyone loved Apê Musa. We all did.
And Kenan Azizoglu, who is still alive, can testify: we met all of Apê Musa’s needs. We never wanted him to experience even the slightest hardship.
Let me say this as well: Kenan Azizoglu made major contributions to the formation of Yeni Ülke and especially Özgür Gündem. Abdullah Amaç also made major contributions at Özgür Gündem.
For example, when they secured the premises for Özgür Gündem, we went to Kale Ticaret. I signed for the newspaper on behalf of Ülkem Press. In fact, imagine this, while I was signing the lease, they were also looking for a publisher for the new newspaper.
Apê Musa was a remarkably witty person. I remember very well a case opened against him over an article in 2000’e Doğru. I, the late Medet brother, Eren Keskin, Ercan Kanar and Ismet Ateş were defending him.
There he turned to the prosecutor and said: “Intellectuals from Europe and Turkey congratulated me for this article, but a prosecutor young enough to be my son accuses me of separatism.”
The prosecutor lowered his head in embarrassment and could say nothing. That was Musa uncle.
For example, during the 1971 Revolutionary Eastern Cultural Hearths trial, one day he was lying back with his head lowered. Judge Hamdi Sevinç entered. The clerk was recording: “The defendants entered the courtroom independently. Musa Anter is lying down…”
They called out, “Mr. Musa, Mr. Musa!”
Musa uncle slowly raised his head. “Yes?”
“Why are you lying down? The hearing has begun.”
He replied: “Your Honor, I am sleeping so that perhaps in my dream I may see a fair court. One that will release me and not make me deal with such things at my age.”
That was Musa uncle. A deeply witty man.
The 1990s: The price of journalism, assassinations and repression
Hafız was shot on June 8. He was martyred about an hour and a half later. A team was formed and went there. The attack on Hafız Akdemir was direct…
Hafız Akdemir, after Cengiz…
Why Hafız Akdemir?
Hafız had made a very important speech at Cengiz Altun’s funeral: “You will not silence us.”
He had also put it into writing, and it was published in Yeni Ülke. I received that piece at the time and handled its publication.
Hafız was saying in particular: “We will bring you out from your dark corridors. Cengiz is gone, but I am in his place now. I have taken up his pen. I will carry out this struggle against you as it must be carried.”
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