Anadolu Ajansı
The history of Anadolu Ajansı (AA) is almost identical to that of the Republic of Türkiye. having been founded on April 6, 1920, 17 days before the Turkish Grand National Assembly convened first time, Anadolu Ajansı helped announce the first legislation by the Assembly that established the Republic. Anadolu Ajansı witnessed all stages of the National Struggle, the War of Liberation and reforms of the Republic.
After Istanbul came under occupation on March 16, 1920 and the Ottoman parliament was annulled, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk called on all provinces to hold elections for a new parliament to be established in Ankara. Several intellectuals, who realized that they could not stay in Istanbul any longer, tried to join the National Struggle. This development paved the way for foundation of Anadolu Ajansı.
Those intellectuals leaving Istanbul went to Ankara in two convoys. The journalist Yunus Nadi (Abalioglu) and the writer Halide Edip (Adivar) met in Geyve on March 31st. During their meeting at the train station, they decided that it was necessary to found “an agency organization” in Ankara as soon as possible. They agreed to name the agency as “Anadolu Ajansı”.
It was proposed to establish Anadolu Ajansı at the “School of Agriculture” which also housed Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s headquarters. On April 6th, 1920, Anadolu Ajansı was founded. Anadolu Ajansı carried out a difficult task during the War of Liberation. During the war, Anadolu Ajansı informed the people of the country who did not know what was going on in the rest of the world. AA also struggled against submissive attitude of some foreign and Turkish newspapers in Istanbul. The newly founded agency also had to defend the National Struggle in the world, inform the world public opinion on Türkiye’s rightful demands and act carefully against tricks of some circles.
After Ataturk assigned some of his closest friends to turn the Anadolu Ajansı into a Western news agency, Anadolu Ajansı Corporation was established on March 1, 1925. Anadolu Ajansı acquired an autonomous status with an unexampled organizational chart even in the Western countries in those days.
Mr. Serdar KARAGÖZ,
President & CEO
+90 (312) 999 2150
serdar.karagoz@aa.com.tr
Born on May 24, 1981, in Sakarya, northwestern Türkiye, Serdar Karagoz completed his primary and secondary education in Istanbul. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at Istanbul Bilgi University and later a master’s in human rights law at the same school. After joining Turkuaz Media Group as a manager trainee in 2008, over time, Karagoz tackled responsibilities in all the departments within the group. In 2010, Karagoz started a master’s degree program in media studies at the New School in New York City and began work at the New York Times’ Syndication Department. In 2012-2014, Karagoz became a diplomatic correspondent for Turkish news channel A Haber and contributed columns on US affairs to Turkish newspaper Sabah. At the same time, he launched the web portal usabah.com, which took the pulse of US news for a Turkish audience. Upon returning to Türkiye, Karagoz served as foreign news editor at Sabah and also began preparations to establish Sabah’s English language paper, called Daily Sabah. In February 2014, he was named the founding editor-in-chief of Daily Sabah. After being assigned to national news channel TRT in October 2018, Serdar Karagoz was appointed editorin- chief of TRT International News Channels. He contributed substantially to TRT’s success in the global media arena by adding Arabic, German, Russian, and Balkan language services to the broadcast stream. Since April 7, 2021, Karagoz has continued his career at the helm of Türkiye’s global newswire as Anadolu Ajansı’s chairman and director general.
Yusuf ÖZHAN
Vice President & Editor-in-Chief
+90 (312) 999 2175
yusuf.ozhan@aa.com.tr
A graduate of the Management Information Systems Department at Istanbul’s Boğaziçi University in 2010, Yusuf Özhan then earned a Master’s Degree in Communication, Culture and Technology at Georgetown University in Washington, DC in 2012.
In 2011-2012, he did graduate-level research on the role of new media tools in political communications at the same university.
He worked as a Research Assistant on Turkish-American relations, US foreign policy, and the Syrian civil war; his op-eds and analyses were featured in various publications. Ozhan continues his doctorate studies at Marmara University.
His career as a journalist began in 2012 at Turkish Daily Star, where he worked as Foreign News Editor, then he assumed the role of Digital News Manager at TRT World in 2014-2016, and after that, Editor-in-Chief of TurkMedya Digital Group until 2018.
Later, Özhan returned to TRT and worked as Digital Channel Coordinator at TRT’s International News Broadcasts Department.
Özhan has been the Deputy Director General and Editor-in-Chief of Anadolu Ajansı since April 2021.
