Abdi İpekçi
| Abdi İpekçi | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Abdi İpekçi 8 September 1929 İstanbul |
| Died | 1 February 1979 (aged 49) İstanbul |
| Education |
Galatasaray High School Istanbul University |
| Occupation | Editor-in-chief |
| Years active | 1954–1979 |
| Spouse(s) | Sibel İpekçi (née Dilber) (m. ?–1979) |
| Children | Sedak İpekçi Nuket İpekçi İzet |
Abdi İpekçi (9 August 1929 – 1 February 1979) was a Turkish journalist, intellectual and an activist for human rights. He was murdered while editor-in-chief of the one of the main Turkish daily newspapers Milliyet which was then had a centre-left political stance under the same position.
İpekçi was born in Istanbul, Turkey to a prominent family of Dönme origin. After finishing high school at Galatasaray High School in 1948, he attended law school at Istanbul University for a while. He started his professional career as a sports reporter for the newspaper Yeni Sabah, and transferred later to Yeni İstanbul. In 1954, he joined the newspaper Milliyet as its publishing manager, and was promoted to editor-in-chief in 1959.
A respected journalist, he was a proponent of the separation of religion and state, and an advocate of dialogue and conciliation with Greece, as well as of human rights for various minorities in Turkey. Despite of his career after the 1971 coup d'état, later had in tendency of outwardly favoring left-leaning causes and groups outside of the main secularist, center-leftist and Kemalist Republican People's Party. After from being internationally known as a relatively political moderate, he continuously criticized the political extremism that fueled the violent polarization at the time since the coup.
On 1 February 1979, two members of the ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves, Oral Çelik and Mehmet Ali Ağca (who later shot pope John Paul II), murdered Abdi İpekçi in his car on the way back home from his office in front of his apartment building in Istanbul. Ağca was caught due to an informant and was sentenced to life in prison. After serving six months in a military prison in Istanbul, Ağca escaped with the help of military officers and the Grey Wolves, fleeing first to Iran and then to Bulgaria, which was then a base of operation for the Turkish mafia.
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