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Info-Türk Editors



Dogan Özgüden - Inci Tugsavul 

Dogan Özgüden and Inci Tugsavul work and carry on fight together for more than 50 years.

Son of a railwayman family and born in Kalecik (Ankara) in 1936, Özgüden passed all his childhood years in Anatolian villages. He made his high school education in Ankara and got a licence diploma from the Higher School of Economic and Commercial Sciences (YETO) in Izmir.

He began journalism career in 1952 in Izmir. After having worked at the newspapers Ege Günesi, Sabah Postasi, Milliyet and Öncü in Izmir, Gece Postasi and Sosyal Adalet in Istanbul, he directed as chief editor and main editorialist the most important left-wing daily Aksam (1964-66).

Engaged in the left-wing movement, Özgüden militated in the Workers' Party Of Turkey (TIP) from 1962 and elected to this party's central committee in 1964.

Born in 1940 in Ankara, Inci Tugsavul-Özgüden had her higher education at the Faculty of Law of the Ankara University. She began journalism career in 1961 at the daily Hür Vatan and the weekly Kim, later worked at the dailies Hareket (1962-63) and Aksam (1964-66).

Tugsavul was awarded with the Prize of  Journalist of the Year in 1962 by the Journalists' Trade Union of Ankara and in 1963 by the Journalists' Association of Istanbul.

Özgüden and Tugsavul founded and directed the socialist review Ant and the Ant Publishing House (1967-71). Both were accused more than 50 times of having committed "crime of opinion" in the articles that they wrote or published.  After the military coup of 1971, Ant was closed down.  Threatened by a total of more than 300-year imprisonment, they had to leave Turkey.

In Europe they organized with other opponents in exile the Democratic Resistance of Turkey after 12 March coup and the Union for Democracy in Turkey after the 12 September coup in order to mobilize European public opinion against the repressive regimes.

Since 1974, they edit in Brussels the Info-Turk Agency which informs the world opinion of the situation of human rights in Turkey (http://www.info-turk.be)
 

and lead the Sun Workshops (Ateliers du Soleil), a multicultural permanent education organization (http://www.ateliersdusoleil.be).

After the 1980 military coup, Özgüden and Tugsavul were respectively chairman and responsible for publication of the Union for Democracy in Turkey (DIB), founded in Europe for resisting against the military junta.

Along with more than 200 other opponents of the regime in exile, they were deprived of their Turkish nationality in 1982 because of their criticisms against the military junta. Although this decision was annulled after ten years, the Foreign Affairs Ministry has declined to give them a written guarantee that they would not be indicted or imprisoned for the accusations that the same ministry communicated earlier to the European Human Rights Commission.

On the contrary, more than 30 years after the military coup, the Turkish Justice indicted Dogan Özgüden in 2002 for insulting army chiefs because of his article criticizing putschist generals. The tribunal ordered his arrest at the checkpoint if he returns to Turkey in order to judge him. The trial restarted later on according to Article 301 of the new Turkish Penal Code has been suspended unti to his arrestation in the case of returning to Turkey.

One of the former leading members of the Journalists' Association of Turkey (TGC), the Journalists' Trade Union (TGS) and the Ethical Council of the Press (BSD) in Turkey, Dogan Özgüden is now a member the Journalists' Association of Turkey (TGC), the Association of Professional Journalists of Belgium (AGJPB) and the Brussels Center of Intercultural Actions (CBAI).
 
He is author of many books and studies, mainly On Fascism (1965, Istanbul), On Capitalism (1966, Istanbul), File on Turkey (1972, France), Turkey, Fascism and Resistance  (1973, The Netherlands; 2006, Belgium), Mass media and Turkish Migrants (1983), The Portrait of Turkish Migration (1984), Black Book on the Militarist "Democracy" in Turkey (1986 - 2010), Extreme Right in Turkey (1988), Stateless Journalist I (2010), Stateless Journalist II (2011), Writings from exile, Volumes I et II (2019), Volume III (2020), Volume IV (2021), Volume V (2022), Volume VI (2023), Cilt VI (2023), Une rebelle dans l'encre d'exil (2024), Resistance Documents (2024).

Former member of the Journalists' Association of Turkey (TGC) and the Journalists' Trade Union (TGS ), Inci Tugsavul-Özgüden is now member of the International Press Association (API) in Brussels. She is the author of the Introduction to the Classical Music (1965, Istanbul) and Turkish Women (1991, Brussels).

*
Thanks to Dogan Özgüden by
the Journalists' Association of Turkey

The Administrative Board of the Journalists' Association of Turkey (TGC), met on November 4, 2007, unanimously decided to present to Journalist Dogan Özgüden a letter of thanks within the frame of the Burhan Felek Prize, because of his "distinguished services made to the Turkish press for over 50 years." The decision was transmitted to Özgüden, who cannot enter his country because of a number of prosecutions for his opinions, by a letter signed by Orhan Erinç and Celal Toprak, respectively Chairman and Secretary General of the Journalists' Association of Turkey. The Turkish Justice indicted Dogan Özgüden in 2002 for insulting army chiefs because of his article criticizing putschist generals. The tribunal ordered his arrest at the checkpoint if he returns to Turkey in order to judge him. The trial that restarted later on according to Article 301 of the new Turkish Penal Code has been suspended unti his arrestation in the case of returning to Turkey. *   The Journalists' Association of Turkey (TGC) celebrated its 72th anniversary on June 27, 2018, in Istanbul. During the ceremony, 47 journalists born in 1936 and 1937 were honored as master journalists with a special plate. Journalist Dogan Özgüden, chief editor of Info-Turk who is in exile sent a message of thanks to the TGC direction.

*
The prize of "Thought and Expression Freedom" to
Dogan Özgüden and Inci Tugsavul




The 2015 edition of the Freedom of Thought and Expression Awards ceremony was held on June 10, 2015,  at Pera Palace in Istanbul. At the ceremony, organized by the Publisjersù Union of Turkey (TYB) with the contribution of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, attended several personalities of the cultural and artistic life of the country.

Among the award-winning publishers were Doğan Özgüden and İnci Tuğsavul, founders of the magazine and the publishing house Ant. They are in exile since 1971 because of their publishing activities pursued in Turkey. Due to this absence, the prize of Özgüden and Tugsavul was awarded to their comrades Fahri Aral and Faruk Pekin. Then, a joint message of Özgüden and Tuğsavul pre-recorded was projected on the big screen.

                                                                                                                                                                   
1971: Özgüden at the first year of his exile in Sweden
(Photo: Günes Karabuda)

1973: Özgüden in Paris with one of the oldest political migrants from Turkey:
Professor Fahrettin Petek



1974: Özgüden and Tugsavul at the first editorial office of
 Info-Türk at Chaussée de Ninove in Anderlecht

1975: Özgüden and Tugsavul at the May Day Demonstration in Brussels with migrant workers from Turkey

1976: Özgüden addressing to the evening for hommage to Nazim Hikmet, great Turkish poet died in exile

1977: Tugsavul preparing at Info-Türk's graphic workshop resistance  posters and flyers against the Ankara regime

1977: A press conference at the IPC concerning the coming elections in Turkey

1980: Özgüden at a protest demonstration in font of the
Turkish Embassy in Brussels with other opponents of the Ankara regime

1981: Özgüden and Tugsavul welcome at their home Behice Boran, chairwoman of the   Workers' Party of Turkey (TIP),  exiled in Belgium after the September 12th, 1980 Coup in Turkey

1981: Özgüden, president of the Union for Democracy in Turkey (DIB), addressing to the evening in protest
against the military junta, organized at the Ancienne Belgique Hall in Brussels

1981: Özgüden addressing the Kurdish evening organized by Tekoser

1982: Özgüden and Tugsavul at the anti-fascist stand of
the resistants from Turkey during the Red Flag Festival in Brussels

1982: Tugsavul with immigrant children at the anti-racist demonstration in Brussels

 1983: Özgüden with Piet Dankert, Speaker of the European Parliament, at the Cartoons Exhibition
organized by Info-Türk at the International Press Center in Brussels

1983: Özgüden,at the same exhibition, with Member of European Parliament Ernest Glinne
and Secretary General of the World Labour Confederation (CMT)  Jan Kulakowski



1984: Inci Tugsavul and Iuccia Saponara with women at the Sun Workshops



1984. Fahrettin Petek and Gaye Petek in Brussels to celebrate the new year with the family Özgüden



Masis Kürkçügil, one of the 68 leaders and ODP founders with Ozguden in Brussels just before his return from exile


1986: Secretary General of the Sun Workshops


October 6, 1986: Participants of a debate
on Roger Hanin's film "Hell Train" at the RTBF TV

1987: Dogan özgüden, who participated at a conference in Holland organized
on the social history of Turkey by the International Institutute of Social History,
together with Murat Belge and Oya Baydar.

1993: Özgüden and Tugsavul with Julos Beaucarne
at the vernissage of the exhibition of Sun Workshops



1996: Özgüden training Sun Workshops members on editing a book



1997: Özgüden with Prime Minister of Brussels Charles Picqué and Chairman of
Lire et Ecrire Alain Leduc  during the celebration of Alphabetisation Day



1998: Özgüden with Prime Minister of Brussels Charles Picqué, MinisterEric Tomas,
Chairman of Lire et Ecrire Alain Leduc  during the opening of
the Alphabetisation Day celebrated at the Sun Workshops



1999: Tugsavul and Özgüden at the vernissage of the 25th Anniversary Exhibition
of the Sun Workshops, opened by Schaerbeek Mayor Francis Duriau



2000: Tugsavul and Özgüden with Martine Payfa, Speaker
of the COCOF Assembly of Brussels Region, during her visit to the Sun Workshops



2001: Özgüden with Derwich Ferho, Chairman of the Brussels Kurdish Institute,
 during a conference on the Kurdish Question at the European Parliament in Brussels

2003: Opening, at the Sun Workshops, of the campaign "Peace, it startas among us",
organized in partnership with Mrax, LDDH, CNAPD, CBAI,
Collectif Alpha and the Center for Chances Equality

2004:  Özgüden with state Secretary Hutchinson and Lire et Ecrire Chairman Alain Leduc
at the stand of Sun Workshops at the occasion of "Alpha Spring"

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