Journalist Ertuğrul Özkök investigated for insulting president

Veteran Turkish journalist Ertuğrul Özkök is facing an investigation for allegedly insulting the president. The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office initiated the probe ex officio based on statements Özkök made during a television appearance.

Özkök, who was born in İzmir in 1947, served as the editor-in-chief of the Hürriyet newspaper for approximately 20 years. His career also includes roles in academia and as a board member at Doğan Yayın Holding. He began his journalism career as a reporter at TRT before pursuing a doctorate in Communication Sciences in France. He returned to Hürriyet in 1986.

During a program hosted by journalist Bahar Feyzan, Özkök commented on the nature of political regimes. He drew parallels to the collapse of the Franco regime in Spain, suggesting that regimes built around a single personality are not sustainable. Özkök stated that the current regime in Turkey is designed around President Tayyip Erdoğan's personality and would not persist without him. He added that leaders, like anyone else, age and their time in power eventually ends.

Özkök's past writings and statements reveal a shift in his political views, from socialist leanings in his student years to a more liberal perspective influenced by Turgut Özal. His published works include titles such as "Sanat, İletişim ve İktidar" (Art, Communication, and Power) and "Bir Beyaz Türk'ün Hafıza Defteri" (A White Turk's Memory Book).

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These times will pass. I witnessed firsthand in Spain as a student how the Franco regime collapsed. It disappeared overnight, the 30-year Franco dictatorship. The regime changed in Spain the night he died! No one should think that these kinds of regimes will continue like this, they don't. The current regime in Turkey is designed around the personality of Tayyip Erdoğan and is valid with his personality. There is no second person who can carry this regime in Turkey like him, and there cannot be for a long time anyway. So when such a situation arises, everyone not just for today... After all, our President is 72 years old. Now, 72 years old, he can go on, but eventually ages end. That is, I am experiencing this, ages end.