Supporting fired journalists, Küçükkaya removed from office as Cumhuriyet chief editor

* Photo: Ali Kandaz / Twitter

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Cumhuriyet newspaper has removed Editor-in-Chief Aykut Küçükkaya from office shortly after he protested together with eight employees of the newspaper, also members of a union, who were dismissed.

Appointing Küçükkaya as the chief editorial adviser, Cumhuriyet has appointed editorial coordinator Serkan Ozan as the acting Editor-in-Chief.

In a statement released by the newspaper, it has been announced that it is a decision of the Cumhuriyet Foundation.

What happened?

By citing financial problems, on November 29, Cumhuriyet newspaper dismissed photojournalist Vedat Arık, copy editing department head Rüya Özalkan, sunday supplement editor Hilal Köse, sports department head Sami Gürel, reporter Tuğba Özer, managing editor Olcay Büyüktaş, reporter Ece Piroğlu and one other employee from the archive department.

All dismissed employees were union members.

Two months ago, on October 1, women's news editor Kübra Köklü, Esra Alus from the economy department and Altan Yağcı, İlker Güneş Doğan and Dilek Kılıç from cumhuriyet.com.tr were dismissed.

Amid these dismissals, the Journalists' Union of Turkey (TGS) made a statement and requested the reinstatement of the journalists. A day later, a protest was held in front of the central office of Cumhuriyet in İstanbul. Editor-in-Chief Aykut Küçükkaya joined the protest as well. He indicated that the journalists had been dismissed without his knowledge. Küçükkaya said that he was on the side of the journalists. (HA/SD)