Type Daily newspaper Founded 2007 | Format Berliner Language Turkish | |
Owner(s) Estetik Publishing Ltd. Political alignment Kemalism
Secularism
Nationalism | ||
Sözcü ("The Spokesman") is a popular Turkish daily newspaper. Sözcü was first published on 27 June 2007 and today, it is distributed nationwide. As of November 2016, it is the fourth top-selling newspaper in Turkey, with about 280,000 copies sold daily.
Contents
Overview
Its origin goes back to Gözcü (literally, The Observer) which was published by Doğan Media Group, which began publication on 15 May 1996 and ceased publication on 1 April 2007. Gözcü was taken over by its employees and its name was changed as Sözcü. In its first days the newspaper sold 60,000 copies. In September 2008 the newspaper had an average circulation of 150,000. In December 2010 this number reached 210,000.
As a result of political polarization, Sözcü became the country’s fourth top-selling newspaper by its lurid antigovernment (Justice and Development Party or AKP, which has been ruling Turkey since 2002) stance. It is the highest-selling Turkish paper that openly criticizes the ruling party and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Sözcü adopts a more strongly nationalist and Kemalist political orientation than the other popular anti-AKP papers, Cumhuriyet and BirGün.
An edition of Sözcü aimed at the Turks of Western Europe is printed in Germany.
AMK
The daily sports newspaper AMK is published by the Sözcü Group since 2012. The word "AMK" which officially is an acronym of Açık Mert Korkusuz (translated: Open, Valiant and Fearless) evoked some controversy, as the acronym is also used for a phrase that includes a vulgar word to refer to female genitalia.