The Turkish Journalists’ Union (TGS) celebrated its 74th anniversary on the fifth day of the strike at the AFP Turkey Bureau. Speaking at the strike site, TGS President Gökhan Durmuş noted that the union’s history has been shaped by organizing and the struggle for rights, stating, “Celebrating our anniversary in this strike tent is the greatest tribute we can pay to our union’s history.”
The Turkish Journalists’ Union (TGS) celebrated its 74-year struggle—which began on July 10, 1952, under the name Istanbul Journalists’ Union—at the strike site on the fifth day of the strike at the AFP Turkey Bureau.
Speaking at the event held in the strike tent, TGS President Gökhan Durmuş said that the union’s history is the history of journalists’ struggles for organization, rights, and strikes.
Recalling that the TGS was founded by 20 journalists, including Cevat Fehmi Baştürk, Nazım Ulusoy, Ahmet İhsan, Hıfzı Topuz, Ali Karakurt, and Cevat İstek, Durmuş noted that since its establishment, 22 general presidents have fought for journalists’ labor rights, social security, and humane working conditions.
Emphasizing that the union has played a role in key turning points in the struggle for the rights of media workers, Durmuş recalled that in 1961, in response to the decision by newspaper owners—who opposed the Press Labor Law No. 212—to suspend publication for three days, the TGS organized the resistance by publishing the Basın newspaper. Durmuş noted that the organization, which adopted the name Turkish Journalists’ Union in 1963, expanded its organization nationwide, and a year later, the first collective bargaining agreements were signed at the Milliyet and Cumhuriyet newspapers.
“The history of the TGS is also the history of strikes,” said Durmuş, noting that starting with the 1969 Anadolu Agency strike, journalists have staged strikes to defend their rights at Dünya Gazetesi, Ulus Gazetesi, Cumhuriyet, Sabah-ATV, BBC, Sputnik, and numerous other media outlets. Noting that the AFP strike is a continuation of this struggle, Durmuş said, “Celebrating our anniversary in this strike tent is the greatest sign of respect we can show for our union’s history.”
Durmuş said that AFP management had offered journalists a pay raise even lower than the inflation rate announced by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) and emphasized that they would not accept this imposition of low wages. Noting that the economic problems faced by journalists are not separate from those of other segments of society, Durmuş said that the common demand of retirees, minimum-wage earners, civil servants, and all workers is a wage that allows for a decent standard of living.
Expressing that journalists are being forced to work amid economic anxieties, Durmuş said, “Journalists are responsible for delivering accurate information to the public. It is unfair to expect journalists—who are forced to worry about rent, bills, and making ends meet—to practice independent journalism.”
Concluding his speech with the words, “Our 74-year history is a history of the struggle for bread, freedom, and independence. May our new year and our new strike be blessed. Those who struggle always win,” Durmuş emphasized that the AFP strike is part of journalists’ struggle for decent working conditions.
Following the speech, the cake commemorating the TGS’s 74th anniversary was cut in the strike tent together with the journalists on the AFP strike. The AFP strikers who cut the cake expressed their hope that the AFP strike would end successfully and that the pressure on journalists would cease, allowing them to report freely.
