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Osman Oktay Ekşi (born 7 December 1932) is a Turkish journalist, author and politician.

He started his journalism career as a reporter for the Ankara News Agency (ANKA) in 1952. Between 1952 and 1954, he was the Ankara Correspondent for Dünya, a daily newspaper. He served as Ankara Bureau Chief of Dünya between 1954 and 1960. In 1961, he was elected as a member of the Constituent Assembly. Between 1962 and 1966, he served as Local Secretary at the Turkish Consulate General in London. He returned to Turkey in 1966 to take up a job as Ankara Bureau Chief of Yeni Gazete daily (an affiliation of Hürriyet daily) which lasted until 1970. After working one year (between 1970-1971) at the Turkish Radio and Television Network (TRT) he joined Hurriyet newspaper in 1971 as Ankara correspondent. He became Ankara Bureau Chief in 1972 and in 1974 he was appointed as the Chief (Leading) Columnist of Hürriyet. He fulfilled this position until 1983, during which time (between 1974 and 1982) he was General Manager of Hürriyet News Agency.

In 1983 until 1984, he served as Vice Chairman and founding member of the Social Democratic Party (SODEP).

In 1984, he became Chief (Leading) Columnist of Güneş daily and after rejoining Hürriyet in 1985, served as Chief (Leading) Columnist until 2010. O. Oktay Ekşi resigned from Hürriyet daily when one of his articles was taken as an insult by the Prime Minister in 2010.

From 1988 to 2010, Oktay Ekşi was The Chairman and Leading Founding Member of the (Turkish) Press Council. He was also the Vice Chairman and Founding Member of the World Association of Press Councils (WAPC) from 1992 to 2002. In 2002, he was elected President of the WAPC, a position which he served until 2009. Also between 1996 and 1998 he was the Founding Chairman and Leading Founding Member of Basın Enstitüsü Derneği (the National Committee of International Press Institute) (IPI).

He was elected as a member of Parliament for the Republican People's Party in the 2011 general election. He chaired the opening session of the 24th parliamentary term.[1] as the oldest MP.

Oktay Eksi received numerous awards from various journalistic associations. In addition, he was awarded the Paul Harris Award by the 2430 Region of Rotary International in 1997. In 2003, Istanbul University gave Oktay Eksi an Honorary Doctorate and in 2006 he was given a Distinguished Service Award by Middle East Technical University.

Oktay Eksi is married to Professor Dr. Aysel Ekşi. He has two sons and two grandchildren.

Resignation from Hurriyet[link]

In 2010, Ekşi resigned from Hürriyet after he insulted the prime minister and state ministers in one of his columns. Ekşi referred to members of the government as having a “mindset willing to sell one’s own mother” — the phrase in Turkish is highly offensive and implies one who is willing to sell one’s own mother as a prostitute — when criticizing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yıldız and Environment Minister Veysel Eroğlu over a government project to build a hydroelectric complex in Rize.^[1]

References[link]

This article about a Turkish politician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Mustafa Sarıgül (born 1956 in İliç, Erzincan Province, Turkey), is the mayor of the Şişli district in Istanbul, where he was elected as the candidate of Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi for the past two terms.

However, as a member of the CHP he became a known figure of the internal opposition against then party leader Deniz Baykal. It also has been announced that he will not be shown as a candidate for CHP in any other national or local elections again.

It was announced in 2008 that he would officially join the DSP.^[1]

In 2009 he formed a new political movement called the Turkish Change Movement (Türkiye Değişim Hareketi) and started work towards forming it into a political party. However, following Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's succession to CHP's leadership in 2010, he announced that this created an opportunity for change in the CHP, and that he would not form a new party.^[2]

See also[link]

• Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu
• Deniz Baykal
• Republican People's Party
• Şişli

References[link]

This Turkish biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Çevik Bir in 1993

Çevik Bir is a retired Turkish army general. He was a member of the Turkish General Staff in the 1990s. He took a major part in several important international missions in the Middle East and North Africa. He was born in Buca, Izmir Province, in 1939 and is married with one child.^[1]

He graduated from the Turkish Military Academy as an engineer officer in 1958, from the Army Staff College in 1970 and from the Armed Forces College in 1971. He graduated from NATO Defense College, Rome, Italy in 1973.^[1]

From 1973 to 1985, he served at SHAPE, NATO's headquarters in Belgium. He was promoted to brigadier general and commanded an armed brigade and division in Turkey. From 1987 to 1991, he served as major general, and then was promoted to lieutenant general.^[1]

After the dictator Siad Barre’s ousting, conflicts between the General Farah Aidid's party and other clans in Somalia had led to famine and lawlessness throughout the country. An estimated 300,000 people had died from starvation. A combined military force of United States and United Nations (under the name "UNOSOM") were deployed to Mogadishu, to monitor the ceasefire and deliver food and supplies to the starving people of Somali. Çevik Bir, who was then a lieutenant-general of Turkey, became the force commander of UNOSOM II in 1993.^[2] Despite the retreat of US and UN forces after several deaths due to local hostilities mainly led by Aidid, the introduction of a powerful military force opened the transportation routes, enabling the provision of supplies and ended the famine quickly.

He became a four-star general and served three years as vice chairman of the Turkish Armed Forces, then appointed commander of the Turkish First Army, in Istanbul. While he was vice chairman of the TAF, he signed the Turkish-Israeli Military Coordination agreement in 1996.

Çevik Bir became the Turkish army's deputy chief of general staff shortly after the Somali operation and played a vital role in establishing a Turkish-Israeli entente against the emerging fundamentalism in the Middle East. Çevik Bir retired from the army on August 30, 1999.^[1] He is a former member of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA).

On April 12, 2012, Bir and 30 other officers were taken in custody for their role in the 1997 military memorandum that forced the then Turkish government, led by the Islamist Welfare Party, to step down.^[3]

Distinctions[link]

• United Nations Medal (1994)
• US Medal of Merit (1994)^[4]
• Turkish Armed Forces Medal of Distinguished Service (1995)^[4]
• German Medal of Honor (1996)^[4]
• Turkish Armed Forces Medal of Merit (1996)^[4]
• United Kingdom Distinguished Achievement Medal (1997)
• United Kingdom Distinguished Service Medal (1997)
• Jordanian Medal of Istihkak (1998)^[5]
• French Medal of Merit (1999)

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b c d} "Orgeneral Çevik Bir’in Biyografisi". Türkiye Kalite Derneği. Archived from the original on 2006-10-03. http://web.archive.org/web/20061003073946/http://www.kalder.org/genel/download/12%20Ulusal%20Kalite%20Kongresi/cevik%20-%20bir%20cv-turkce.pdf. Retrieved 2012-05-06.  (English) (Turkish)
2. ^ "United Nations Operation in Somalia II (UNOSOM II)". Department of Public Information. 1997-03-21. http://www.un.org/Depts/DPKO/Missions/unosom2b.htm. Retrieved 2012-05-06. 
3. ^ Arsu, Sebnem (2012-04-12). "Turkish Military Leaders Held for Role in ’97 Coup". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/13/world/middleeast/turkey-detains-military-leaders-for-role-in-1997-coup.html. Retrieved 2012-04-13. 
4. ^ ^{a b c d} "The Azerbaijan-Turkey-US Relationship and its Importance for Eurasia". Union of Black Sea and Caspian Confederation of Enterprises. 2007-12-10. http://www.ubcce.org/md/ATIB_Report_ENG.pdf. 
5. ^ "Turkey, Israel to hold strategic talks in May to evaluate threats". Turkish Daily News. 1998-04-22. Archived from the original on 2008-11-13. http://tdnarchives.blogspot.com/1998/04/turkey-israel-to-hold-strategic-talks.html. "Recently, Gen. Bir was awarded the Medal of Merit by King Hussein of Jordan for his brilliant contributions to Turkish-Jordanian ties."