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.
In that period, there was pressure directed at Kurdish politics on one hand; the state was coming down on you through a certain conjuncture and concept. How did the Free Press tradition feel this?
We knew these pressures would come, but we could not organize sufficiently among ourselves. That was the biggest mistake.
What headlines do you remember from that time?
For example, when Hafız Akdemir was martyred, newspapers turned their focus toward us. When Cengiz Altun was killed in Batman, the Yeni Ülke headline was “We will not be silenced.”
Hafız Akdemir’s article carried the same spirit. He had written: “Your smile is my freedom.”
After Hafız Akdemir’s killing, Ragıp Duran left the newspaper. After him, Haluk Gerger, Hasan Bildirici, Ramazan Ülek and several other journalists whose names I do not recall formed a collective team to coordinate the newspaper and oversee editorial management.
A month later, Haluk Gerger also returned to Ankara. After that, Hasan Bildirici took over as editor-in-chief.
Birth of the Free Press tradition and its line of struggle
The newspaper was increasingly coming under pressure by that point, wasn’t it?
Very much so. Özgür Gündem was confiscated, Yeni Ülke was confiscated. There was relentless pressure on both. Their correspondents were being killed.
What kind of pressure?
There were threats, for example. Cengiz had been threatened by the district governor of Gercüş. He told him, “You are going too far, watch your step.”
The delegation returning from Cengiz Altun’s funeral was roughed up by police. They used to tell us: “You are not journalists, you are militants.”
At the press conference I held after Cengiz’s killing, I said something I still remember: “This fire will come and burn you too.”
And we remember that as a newspaper headline as well: “This fire will burn you too.”
It was also a headline used by Özgür Politika and Yeni Ülke.
When Apê Musa was assassinated, our headline was “The target was peace.” Another headline read: “They have killed Apê Musa too.”
Unsung heroes: Newspaper distributors
There were also newspaper distributors in that period.
For example, the Yaşa family had two martyrs. They came with cleavers and killed or shot our newspaper distributors. In truth, those distributors were the unnamed heroes. Fearlessly, they carried Yeni Ülke and Özgür Gündem under their arms and distributed them across Kurdistan.
You were publishing the newspaper in Istanbul, it would reach Amed, and children there would take it and distribute it to readers. What did you feel seeing a paper you published in Istanbul in the hands of distributors in Diyarbakır? Do you have a memory of that?
One day I had gone to Diyarbakır. I saw one of the distributors shouting: “Yeni Ülke, Yeni Ülke, writing the truths!” Children of 14 or 15 would sell out the newspapers and come back. They were paid by commission. As I said, the real heroes were them.
Systematic violence and attacks against journalists
For example, the Yaşa family… They raided their newsstand. They killed the grandfather there, and they killed his son. In Van, they killed the friend organizing distribution there, martyred him. Then on May 31, they killed Yahya Orhan. Yahya Orhan was very unprotected. He would close his shop, go to a coffeehouse, then return home. They had set up an ambush at 11 o’clock. He was shot with 27 bullets; the bullets were still in his body. They came to the scene and did not even collect the shell casings. The next day his family gathered the bullets and handed them over to the public prosecutor. That is how Yahya was taken from us. Our lack of precautions, our lack of precautions.
Hüseyin Deniz was constantly being threatened. Police would come and stand all day in front of the wholesale shop where his brother worked, watching, taking note of things. Yet he would still go alone to his brother’s home, to his brother’s shop. He was caught in crossfire and shot in the head; they were almost always targeting the head.
They shot Burhan Karadeniz in the head in the same way. But by chance, Burhan stepped up onto the curb at that moment, the bullet struck the back of his neck, and he was left paralyzed. He lived here for 13 years after that. He later made programs for Özgür Politika, Med TV, Medya Haber and Medya TV.
Hüseyin Deniz was shot on June 9. At that time we had gone to Diyarbakır for a solidarity watch. All our names and photographs were in the newspaper. We were on our way there, and I asked Ramazan Ülek, “Have the necessary precautions been taken?”
We got off at the bus terminal in Seyrantepe in Diyarbakır and there was no one there. No precautions at all. We rushed quickly to the cars, got in and went to the newspaper bureau. Had they been waiting for our arrival that day, seven of us could have died there. We had no security measures.
Then, after Hüseyin Deniz, Apê Musa was killed, martyred, on September 20. Before his killing, Apê Musa said, “I am going to Diyarbakır.” I will never forget, Yaşar Kaya and I were in the room with him. We told him: “If you go, they will kill you. Do not go in this period.” But we could not dissuade him. Apê Musa went to Diyarbakır one way or another.
The sea bus he boarded that morning was occupied by leftist students. By the time the sea bus docked in Bakırköy, his plane had departed. He then flew to Malatya, passed from there to Elazığ, and from Elazığ went on to Diyarbakır.
Apê Musa was missing and there was no news from him. I called everywhere, Diyarbakır, Ankara, warning everyone. Then the phone rang at midnight. I answered in fear. It was Apê Musa. He was imitating me, joking.
I said to him: “You traveled alone. They could have killed you in Malatya, they could have killed you in Elazığ.” But they waited for Apê Musa in Diyarbakır.
As part of a plot, Hamit Yıldırım took him somewhere. He was going to meet some people, and Orhan Miroğlu was with him. After a while Hamit Yıldırım drew his gun and fired: one bullet to his heart, one to his head, one to his arm. He died there.
We were all unprotected, and that lack of precautions continued.
They took Ferhat Tepe in Bitlis and disappeared him; his body was left in Golcuk.
They killed Kemal Kılıç in Urfa. They ambushed him on his way home, pulled a sack over his head and shot him.
In this way, we lost 14 martyrs in a single year.
During that period, newspapers were bombed and journalists were directly targeted. After I went to Europe, Özgür Ülke began publication. Özgür Gündem was shut down.
On the orders of Tansu Ciller, Özgür Ülke’s headquarters in Kadırga was bombed with C4 explosives. A distributor named Ersin Yıldız was martyred there. Then solidarity emerged and Özgür Ülke was published again.
After 1994, I went to Europe.
I want to ask this: You speak of lack of precautions, but at the same time there were attacks on newspapers by the state and other structures. What were your observations then, and how do you assess those forces today?
Hizb-i Contra came after us. And it was not only them; there were village guards as well.
Hizb-i Contra killed Cengiz. Hizb-i Contra killed Hafız. Yahya was killed by the state. The ones who wounded Burhan were also Hizb-i Contra. The ones who shot Hüseyin Deniz were Hizb-i Contra as well. Those arrested in operations against Hizbullah also confessed to these acts.
In other words, the killings of Cengiz, Hafız, Yahya Orhan, Burhan Karadeniz and Hüseyin Deniz were carried out by Hizb-i Contra.
The killing of Apê Musa was also an operation. The one who prepared the plot was Mahmut Yıldırım, known by the code name Yeşil, and Hogir was with him. The order given to Hamit Yıldırım was to bring Apê Musa alive and hand him over to Hogir, that is, Mahmut Yıldırım.
The state killed Kemal Kılıç, in other words, the National Intelligence Organization killed him. Then they took and killed Ferhat Tepe as well. It happened when Mete Sayar was in office, when he was commander of the 8th Corps in Tatvan; it was his doing.
They came after us economically, and they were killing us as well. And after killing them, they shamelessly said, “They are killing one another.” They said, “These are not journalists, they have nothing to do with journalism.” They were making such absurd claims.
So, despite all that repression and those threats, you continued doing journalism.
Of course, I continued.
What was your motivation every morning when you woke up?
Every morning when I woke up, I would send my children to school. The school vans would come, take them away, and I would kiss them goodbye. Then I would leave home myself, not knowing whether I would return that evening or not.
We were in the line of fire. Yaşar Kaya and I were in the line of fire, especially at the top of the list. They would have done everything possible to eliminate us.
That is why I went to Europe. But I wish I had not left. If I had stayed and fallen as a martyr there, alongside my friends, I would be happier than I am today. I say this openly, clearly. I wrote this in my memoirs and I have said it in many places. I wish I had remained in my country and been martyred. Either I would have been killed or imprisoned. I would have spent a period in prison, perhaps been released, who knows…
Then we came to Europe. In Europe, Özgür Politika began publishing as a daily.
I want to remember with respect our friend Selçuk Enver Bingöllü and Sinan Cemgil. They made truly major contributions to the founding of Özgür Politika. It began publishing in Europe.
I wrote for Özgür Politika for years, writing columns. Because of this, my home was searched. Repression continued in Europe as well. Of course there was pressure there too. They raided the bureau many times, seized our archives and took them away.
Despite all that, Yeni Özgür Politika continues publishing to this day.
A legacy reaching today: A growing press and enduring risks
I also want to ask this: In the 1990s there was a newspaper, then television; by the 2000s there were daily newspapers, several television channels, then news agencies. Today there are dozens of agencies, televisions and newspapers. Is this a development, how do you interpret it?
As I said at the beginning, Yeni Ülke newspaper, and no one should take offense at this, is the womb of the Free Press as it exists today.
It is true, after the 2000s Dicle News Agency was established, and later Mesopotamia Agency was founded. And if you look carefully, the state also went after them. It did not leave them in peace.
Thirteen of our friends were martyred in Rojava and Southern Kurdistan. The state targeted them with armed drones. Nagihan Akarsel was assassinated while leaving home for the office. Aziz Köylüoğlu was killed in a drone strike.
And we should remember the others too.
On October 11, 2019, Vedat Erdemci and Dilovan Gever were killed in an attack in Serekaniyê, in Rojava.
ANHA correspondent Serdar Ahmet and Çira TV correspondent Muhammed Ihsan Resho were killed in Rojava on October 13, 2019, two days later.
When Til Temir was bombed, a journalist colleague, Bor Marinci Sisi Sinte, was also killed in that bombardment in 2019.
On December 19, 2022, ANHA correspondent Ihsan Abdullah Delil was killed in an attack.
On August 23, 2023, in Qamishlo, JIN TV correspondent Necmettin Faysal Elhanç and reporter Delila Agit were wounded. Necmettin Faysal Elhanç later died.
Çira TV’s Shengal correspondent Murat Mirza was severely wounded in a bombing attack and later died on July 11, 2024.
On August 23, 2024, in the Şehit Sadık area of Sulaymaniyah, a vehicle was struck by an armed drone. Gülistan Tara and Hero Bahattin were killed.
On October 19, 2024, Nazım Daştan and Cihan Bilgin were killed in a drone strike while reporting alongside civilians acting as human shields at Tishrin Dam.
Democratic Journalists Union Coordinator and journalist Aziz Köylüoğlu was killed in a drone strike in Ranya on January 27, 2025, while traveling to Sulaymaniyah.
Journalist Deniz Fırat was also killed during ISIS attacks on Maxmur.
On March 3, 2017, Nujiyan Erhan was martyred during the Kurdistan Democratic Party attack on Shengal.
Jineology journal editor and longtime journalist at Medya TV and Roj TV, Nagihan Akarsel, was martyred in Sulaymaniyah.
And so there have been martyrs not only in Kurdistan, but across all four parts of Kurdistan.
Of course there are also examples of Kurdish journalism in Southern Kurdistan and Eastern Kurdistan. For example, in Eastern Kurdistan, the journal and newspaper Kurdistan and Niştiman were published in 1946.
During the Republic of Mahabad period, newspapers were also published in Southern Kurdistan, including Gelawêj and Rojakurd.
How do you feel seeing so many newspapers and media outlets today? Or let me ask it another way: Back in the 1990s, did you imagine Kurdish media would grow and expand this much? Did you have conversations about this?
Yes, of course we did. Especially during the launch of Özgür Gündem, after seeing the sensitivity of the Kurdish people and the enthusiasm of young people who wanted to become journalists, I always believed Kurdish media would grow and develop in this way.
In fact, at the time I used to ask, “Why don’t we have our own television channel?” The founding days of Med TV come before my eyes; friends were trying to build a television station under extremely difficult conditions, sometimes living on one meal a day. It was an enormous act of dedication. It is impossible not to remember them.
Mahmut Önder made major contributions to television broadcasting. Ferda Çetin’s contributions, both in the newspaper and in television, are unforgettable.
I did imagine there would be this many newspapers and television channels, but I could not have imagined television stations being established in Rojava, Eastern Kurdistan and Southern Kurdistan.
After Med TV came Medya TV, Roj TV, then Medya Haber, Sterk and Ronahî. Ronahî first broadcast in Europe and later moved to Rojava.
If I came into this world again, and the Kurdish people were still without status, and someone said to me, “Come, let’s found a newspaper,” I would gladly do it again.
Journalism is a beautiful profession. But journalists truly need to be free.
What would you like to say to young journalist colleagues?
I would say this to young journalists: apply the fundamental principles of journalism well. Most importantly, be free and convey the truth to the public as it is.
Journalism is a difficult profession. Journalism in Kurdistan is even harder; there is the risk of being targeted by armed drones, being targeted by counter-guerrilla forces, spending years in prison. We lived through all of this.
Kurdish journalism did not begin in the 1990s; it has a much older history. I believe I inherited this tradition from Kurdistan newspaper and carried it to the present.
Finally, I want to say this to all young journalist colleagues: I bow with respect before the memory of all journalists who labored and were martyred in this cause. They never truly died; they all live in our hearts.
Without regard to ideological differences, all journalists who lost their lives in the four parts of Kurdistan belong to all of us. In the person of Musa uncle, I remember the labor of all of them with love and respect.
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