“Everyone writes their own story-history. What you do in difficult situations, what you prefer is your story. I continue to pursue the truth and I know that “the truth sets you free”.
You went to the USA as a repre- sentative of your publishing group, you became an ‘exiled journalist’ after July 15th. How has this change affected your journalism.
I was appointed as a Representative from the Ankara Office to Washington DC Office of the Ipek Media Group (Bugün Newspaper, Bugün Tv and Kanalturk). As it is known, the Ankara Representative Office occupies an important position in the Turkish media order. Naturally, I had also acquired a wide network from both, the world of politics and bureaucracy. I was doing television programs, commenting on mainstream channels, and also writing columns. I had two books published after 2010. It is no exaggeration when I say that my Ankara period was fruitful.
But there is a price to pay for doing critical and independent journalism. I have experienced these as well, especially after the major corruption and bribery operation of December 17, 2013. Actually, the fact that I was sent to the United States as a representative was also the result of such an atmosphere. I moved to Washington in June 2014 and continued my journalism here. However, on October 28, 2015, the trustees of the Erdogan regime extorted the Ipek Media Group with water canon vehicles and gas bombs. I was one of the first people to be laid off that evening. A group of journalists who left the Bugün Newspaper started publishing in the Özgür Düşünce Newspaper, and I was their Washington correspondent until July 15, 2016. However, after the strange and suspicious military events that occurred on July 15, it was also shut down. Meanwhile, I started to be tried in absentia with a life sentence request because of my book “There is this Armenian: the secrets of the Dink operation” published in 2011. My passport (even my newborn child’s) has been canceled. We were stuck in Washington. However, we did not give up and switched to online journalism.
A group of colleagues based in Brus- sels founded TR724.COM and I started there as their Washington correspondent and columnist. At the same time, I started to publish in all social media channels, especially Twitter and Youtube. Since I didn’t have a regular income and was not able to earn the money needed to make a living from journalism, I supported my family by driving Uber during this time. It’s a bit like an arabesque story, but I was working as a journalist in the daytime and as a taxi driver in the evening.
Of course, incredible stories were written about us in the regime’s media. We have been demonized. In fact, it was the most painful thing; people who knew me personally, from whom I thought they were my close friends, wrote tons of things about me. One of them even saw me doing Uber, living on the minimum wage, living in a small two-room apart- ment, but he wrote “he lives in a mansion in the United States, a luxurious life with stolen charity benefits”. As it is, many people from Turkey were scared and afraid to stay in touch with me. Many news sources also withdrew themselves as a result of this demonization. And when that happened, journalism became more difficult than it used to be.
How did you feel when the regime confiscated your broadcasting group and how did you draw a road map for yourself?
I started my career as a police courthouse reporter. I witnessed the 2003 Iraq war and the 2004 Kosovo conflicts on the spot. I mean, I’m used to being in troubled areas. Colleagues say that I am cold-blooded. However, I was very struck by what happened on the morning of October 28, 2015. I was on the other side of the world and I got caught far away. I wanted to be able to be in Turkey and defend the door of Ipek Medya with my colleagues. Because if that door was broken, there would be no set in front of Erdogan, as a matter of fact, that´s what happened afterwards. The events I was watching from the screen, the stories of the colleagues I was talking to, did really wore me out a lot. I wrote a column for the Bugün Newspaper for the last time that day. I wrote an article titled “We’re going to walk with our heads held high, aren’t we?” and it was published on the newspaper’s website. Unfortunately, we were left alone that day in the face of the despotic forces of the regime, and Turkey paid very heavily for it. Turkey would not have gone this far if the door of Ipek Media had not been broken down on that day.
As for what kind of path I was taking for myself; There weren’t many alternatives ahead of us. Either we would leave the profession or we would find a new path for ourselves. Leaving the profession was not an option for me.
That’s why I continued to work as a journalist in every possi- ble way I could find. I started a blog, created a Youtube page, used Twitter and Facebook effectively and finally I continued to work as a journalist at TR724.com. I couldn’t earn enough money to make a living from journalism, but I continued to do full-time journalism in online media. I can say that I didn’t leave journalism even for a day after the newspaper was confiscated. On the one hand, I also looked at ways to improve myself. I can say that my practice as a journalist who has been working in the field for many years was good, but I found that I needed to educate myself academically. That’s why I started my master’s degree in international relations. I have been working in this field for two years and my master’s thesis was on the social media policies and bans of the Erdogan regime.
What are the difficulties of being a journalist in exile? How do you overcome those difficulties?
The most difficult part of journalism in exile is that you are targeted by the regime. They demonize you so much that many people stop contacting you. Therefore, your news sources are really drying up. But if you don’t give up, you can find new sources in the meantime. Because real journalism is actually diminishing in Turkey. This situation can actually give you an advantage. For example, someone who thinks ’no one can publish this news in Turkey’ can somehow provide you with that information. So there are advantages, as well as negative aspects. Financial difficulties, etc., are a fact experienced by every exile journalist.
You continue to work as a journalist, but it is not possible to earn the money to make a living with journalism. Where do you get the motivation to work in a side job and also continue your profession as a journalist?
Journalism is an action. If you are not actually a doctor or an engineer, you can still be considered a ‘doctor’ or an ‘engi- neer’, but journalism is not like that. You are not a journalist unless you act. First of all, out of decency for the profession, I have never taken a break. Secondly, it was necessary to fight for our colleagues in prison, which I think we have done a lot of hard work on. Thirdly, everyone writes his own story-history. What you prefer to do in difficult situations is your story. I continue to pursue the facts and I know that “truth sets you free”.
You became the journalist who uncovered Reza Zarrab many years later. Can you express your feelings about this? Although it is not done today, ‘following up the idea, the story’ is a must in journalism. I was one of the first to hear about Reza Zarrab in Turkey. I had heard of him in 2013, just be- fore the December 17th was off, and he’s been on my agenda for years. I was there when he was arrested in Miami in 2016 and brought to court in New York with his feet and hands cuffed. I am one of the few people who followed the trial in 2017 from the first day to the last day. I narrated all the proceedings from periscope with two broadcasts a day, and it was watched hundreds of thousands of times. Even those who slandered me inconceivably followed this case from my publications.
I have not stopped chasing Zarrab again and he has re- mained on my agenda for many years. After all, he was liv- ing in America, and I had to find out. One day I was provided with a crumb of information and went after that. In fact, I had tracked down Zarrab by following open sources, asking the right people the right questions. After doing the research, I went to Miami. In fact, it was a risky business, but it is necessary to take risks in journalism. I found Zarrab and talked to him a few words. I think the news that I have prepared with all my information has been an excellent investigative news story. All the Turkish media and even the world media used my excellent research news in everyway, but the Turkish media stole my news and credited it to itself. It wasn’t surprising, but it made me think a lot. Those who act hostile even in such an obvious incident can do worse in other scenarios
Although you scored the journalism event of the year, the publications quoting the Reza Zarrab news ignored you or called you ‘Feto Runaway’. How do you evaluate this hypocritical attitude? It’s not surprising, as I stated in the previous question, but it made me think. It made them think as well. Because this was an excellent piece of news. It put its stamp on history. I was the person who made the news that can be called the news of the year, and they went down in history as the people who stole this news. Nothing can change this fact. And I will remind them of their hypocrisy one day. Many of my colleagues say that the Turkey chapter is closed due to the traumatic effect of what they had to experience. I think differently and I say; I will return to confront them, to confront those who have insulted us with these slanders. Everyone will pay for what they did.
Threats continue to come from the Erdogan regime. Strange men wandered in front of my house for days. They took photos of my wife and children and published them in the media. My address was shared on social media and I received messages saying ‘wait for us’.
How do you assess the situation that the Turkish press is in today?
The press is not spared from the collapse that has occurred throughout the country. Like everything else, the press col- lapsed, ran out, stunk. Only a handful of journalists remained there. Some of them pretended to adopt the regime’s rhetoric willingly or unwillingly. Those who act more royalist than the king, those who wait for the order ‘attack, wolf’, those who say ‘no need’ and call innocent people terrorists even if they know in their hearts… Unfortunately, there is no mainstream media. Now newspapers, television and Internet sites are just a prop- aganda device of the regime. Online media is now the only way to get real news. I also focus on this. Despite all the bans my accounts (my YouTube and twitter accounts are banned in Turkey and cannot be accessed from there) are still being watched and followed by hundreds of thousands. I can say that the content I produce alone reaches more people than the total of the newspapers of Hurriyet + Sabah.
What problems did you experience during the visits of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ministers to Washington?
Of course, your job as a man declared an enemy by the re- gime is not easy. For example, you cannot monitor the contacts of delegations from Turkey in Washington. Before July 15, we could follow a little bit of the programs. However, it caused too much trouble. In May 2016, I was invited to a program at the Brookings Institution during Erdogan’s trip to Washington. A 100-year-old institution invited me to the speech of Brook- ings and Erdogan. I was attacked by Erdogan’s bodyguards while I had a press card and an invitation on my collar. I was attacked and taken out of the building. It all happened in front of the cameras. Reputable institutions such as CNN and the Washington Post took what happened to their front pages. It was inconceivable that this happened in a city where Freedom of the Press was almost blessed. As a matter of fact, the next day, the then president Obama was asked directly about the incident and Obama had to say that they don´t approve such things happening. One of the things that upset me the most regarid- ing that day was this: I have actually been a journalist since 1994. I’ve never taken a break except for military service. I have worked in every field from correspondent to editor, from Ankara Representative Office to columnist. Therefore, I have acquired a considerable network. That day, when Erdogan’s bodyguards attacked me, my colleagues, whom I had worked in the same institutions for many years, went on long trips and spent a lot of time with, turned their faces away.
None of them said to Erdogan´s bodyguards “what are you doing?”. They even took pictures of me as if it wasn’t enough, twittered mind-blowing tweets and wrote articles about me. However, until a few years ago, these people referred to my work in their writings, programs, and asked me to publish them. Everything is and will be somehow forgotten, but the attitude of these colleagues will not be forgotten. Threats continue to come from the men of the Erdogan regime. Strange men wandered for days in front of the apartment building where I lived in the USA. They took pictures of my wife and children, and all the media published them on the first page. My $3000 car has become a luxury car in their media, and my ordinary modest two-room apartment is shown as a mansion. They posted my home address on social media and texted ‘wait for us’. Similar harassment has been going on and on in various ways.
What are your recommendations to exiled journalists?
Firstly, being an ‘exile’ is a value. It is proof that you do not compromise your principles. So there’s no need to give a way or to despair. The foot finds a way to walk, and we somehow find a way, we will find it. Despite the fact that we do not have the means, we are able to reach more people than Erdogan’s media with the work we produce. I have seen so many mighty generals in my professional life, so many politicians- They all came, they all left. But good journalists will always exist. Be a good journalist, produce and present good things, the rest does not matter. In addition, exile is instructive as well as all its difficulties. Resetting, losing everything is also an important experience. The main thing is to always produce good work. All the troubles that you have experienced will pass, all the difficulties will be forgotten, but the work, the contribution that you have made to history, the ones that you have produced will remain. Keep producing without limiting yourself with excuses