Taşgetiren Resigns from Star Newspaper After His Article Wasn’t Published

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Ahmet Taşgetiren has announced that he resigned from the pro-government Star daily newspaper.

Among the columnists of pro-government Star, Taşgetiren was penning pieces criticizing the government.

Announcing the resignation on Twitter account, Taşgetiren said that he shared his decision of leaving Star with Partner Media Executive Board President Ahmet Bayraktutar with the following message:

“Amid the recent discussions I’ve come to learn that editorial department of the newspaper has taken side between disputing writers, the hostile articles targeting me were published on the first page, the unfair articles of Mehmet Metiner and Hüseyin Gülerce targeting me were published on the first page on Thursday, and it was decided that my article responding to these pieces be not published.

“I believe this attitude is unfair and unethical. For this reason, I’ve decided to not write at Star anymore.

“For your information”.

Polemics on Zafer Çağlayan’s watch

With respect to government defending former Minister Zafer Çağlayan, who was mentioned in the December 17-25 corruption investigation, Taşgetiren wrote “We are not comfortable with being asked to accept the corruption files that are symbolized with the wristwatch by calling them a ‘national matter’”. Upon this article, Ahmet Kekeç, Gülerce and Metiner wrote pieces against Taşgetiren.

Taşgetiren wrote in his article that wasn’t published on the Star:

“There is an organization against me. It started with the likes of Cem Küçük at TGRT [TV channel]. Attack on Taşgetiren continues at Star. In his latest article, Gülerce stated that he was also the part of this organization. He will feel ashamed of this article. I won’t say another thing.

“As for Metiner…Thanks Allah he is now at the AK Party (Justice and Development Party) and around [President Recep] Tayyip Erdoğan. May Allah protect everyone from February 28 [military memorandum] bulldozer sweeping over their minds. People are driven away. Sometimes they become radical Islamist, sometimes they are appointed as co-Chair of a socialist pro-Kurdish party, sometimes they go back and forth between Sharia and Democracy, sometimes they say ‘If I have to submit, then I submit’…I wish they’ve settled down”.

About Ahmet Taşgetiren

He graduated from Kahramanmaraş Religious Vocational High School in 1965 and from İstanbul Higher Islam Institute in 1970.

He wrote articles at Yeniden Millî Mücadele, Pınar, Türk Edebiyatı magazines. He served as columnist at Bayrak, Tercüman and Zaman newspapers.

He resigned after his article criticizing the then-government after having worked as the head columnist at Yeni Şafak daily newspaper for 10 years. He left Bugün daily newspaper in 2013. He worked as columnist at Aksiyon magazine. He also served as editor-in-chief at Altınoluk magazine and columnist at Star daily newspaper.

He was among the Wise People formed during the peace process. He was the Central Anatolian region president between April 4, 2013-June 19, 2013. (EA/TK)

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