Emin Çölaşan

Emin Çölaşan is a Turkish investigative journalist and was a daily columnist in the mass-circulation newspaper "Hürriyet" until his last article dated 14 August 2007 [cite web|url=http://hurarsiv.hurriyet.com.tr/goster/haber.aspx?id=7080182&yazarid=5
accessdate=2008-08-03
title=Vay vay vay!
work=Hürriyet
first=Emin
last=Çölaşan
date=2007-08-14] . He now writes a daily column for the Sözcü newspaper. He is one of the most controversial names in Turkey's written press.

Biography

Emin Çölaşan was born on 14 March 1942 in Ankara to a Cretan Turkish family. His father was a general director who had made his mark in the [http://www.meteor.gov.tr/2006/english/eng-main.aspx State Meteorological Service] and his surname, which literally means "desert strider", makes reference to a grandfather who had been exiled in profound Libya by the sultan Abdülhamid II. His maternal grandfather is Refik Şevket İnce, a comrade-in-arms of Atatürk with ministerial posts held in the 1920s and the 1950s, and who was born in Polichnitos near Mytilene in Midilli (Lesbos today). The island is a favorite vacation spot for Çölaşan himself.Fact|date=August 2008

Çölaşan finished his secondary studies in TED Ankara College and graduated from the Middle East Technical University with a degree in management studies. For a decade, he worked in various public institutions and he started his career in journalism in 1977 in the newspaper Milliyet and he shifted in 1985 to Hürriyet by starting to contribute as a regular columnist, an influential position carried on still. Çölaşan is the author of numerous books, focused primarily on malpractices within governmental and public circles in Turkey, as well as a party and/or instigator in frequent polemics with his divulgations and statements on various matters.

His spouse, Tansel Çölaşan, is chief advocate of the Turkish Council of State (Danıştay) [cite web|url=http://www.danistay.gov.tr/resume_tansel_colasan.htm
accessdate=2008-08-03
first=Ender
last=Çetinkaya
date=2006-09-20
title=Tansel Çölaşan
work=Turkish Council of State
language=Turkish For English see the Council's [http://www.danistay.gov.tr/eng/index.html organization chart] ] and was an eye-witness and survivor of the May 2006 attack on the council's premises by Alparslan Arslan. [cite web|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/17/AR2006051701898.html
author=Borg, Yesim
coauthor=Vick, Karl
title=Judge Killed in Attack On Turkish High Court
work=Washington Post
date=2006-05-18
accessdate=2008-08-03
pages=A19]

Controversies

Çölaşan was a virulent critic of the late President of Turkey, Turgut Özal, targeted in two of his books; "Turgut'un Serüveni" (Turgut's adventure)" and "Turgut Nereden Koşuyor?" (Where is Turgut running from?)". As of 2007, the choice figures for his lasting enmity are Mehmet Barlas, another well-known Turkish columnist, and İ. Melih Gökçek, the AKP mayor of Ankara. Çölaşan made a point of pronouncing the mayor's name in full, in reference to ; a practice for which he was fined 40000 Lira. [cite news|url=http://arsiv.gazeteport.com.tr/NEWS/GP_083878
title=Çölaşan'a kötü haber
work=Gazeteport
accessdate=2008-08-03
date=2007-10-04
language=Turkish
first=Sibel
last=Hürtaş] The two finally appeared on a televised debate, [cite news|title=Ankara'nın Gündemi|work=TGRT|date=2007-03-29 (22:00)|url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWTwpSGNFLc|language=Turkish|format=video] which received a warning from the state censorship board for indecency. [cite web|url=http://yenisafak.com.tr/Gundem/?t=04.04.2007&i=38813
accessdate=2008-08-03
title=RTÜK Çölaşan-Gökçek tartışmasından dolayı TGRT'yi uyardı
date=2007-04-04
publisher=Yeni Şafak
work=Cihan
language=Turkish] Çölaşan also criticized the incumbent AKP government, which is believed to the reason behind his being his fired from the newspaper Hürriyet on August 13, 2007, after 22 years of service. [cite news|url=http://www.bianet.org/english/kategori/english/101206/hurriyet-journalist-colasan-dismissed
accessdate=2008-08-03
title=Hürriyet Journalist Cölasan Dismissed
work=Bianet
date=2007-08-17
author=EÖ/EÜ/AG] [cite news|url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121547086122633883.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
accessdate=2008-08-03
title=Turkey Versus Turkey
work=Wall Street Journal
location=Europe
first=Soner
last=Cagaptay
date=2008-07-08]

References

External links

* [http://hurarsiv.hurriyet.com.tr/yazarlar/default.aspx?ID=5 Archive of articles by Emin Çölaşan]