The moment a town begins to discuss its own affairs in its own voice is very often the day its first local newspaper appears. In Amasya that moment came rather late, compared with Istanbul and even with Sivas, the seat of the province to which Amasya belonged. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century the town learned its printed news from the provincial gazette published in Sivas and from the official yearbooks. Newspapers printed on its own presses, writing about its own streets and its own officials, emerged only in the freer atmosphere brought by the Second Constitutional Era, between 1909 and 1911. The century that followed is a story of publishing with many ups and downs but no real break, running from the wartime issues of the Turkish War of Independence printed on grocers' wrapping paper to the official provincial gazette of the Republic, from the daily papers of the 1950s that took one another to court to the merger engineered by the governor in 1964, and on to the online journalism of today.

For a long time the history of the Amasya press rested almost entirely on the shoulders of a single book. Hüseyin Menç's Amasya Basın Tarihi (History of the Amasya Press), published by Amasya Municipality in 1993, was the first comprehensive work to bring together scattered issues and personal testimony. A large part of the copies Menç collected were later digitised and made available to researchers. In recent years Mustafa Arıkan's study, based on documents in the Ottoman archives and on the collections of the National Library, and Nazan Kahraman's work on the 1964 merger have added new links to this chain. The account below draws on these studies; places where the sources disagree are noted separately.

Printing Presses and Provincial Gazettes in the Ottoman Provinces

The first Turkish-language newspaper in the Ottoman Empire was Takvim-i Vekayi, which appeared in 1831, roughly a century after the founding of the first press to print in Turkish. Published by the state and produced by state officials, it differed from its Western counterparts in purpose: rather than voicing the demands of society, it was meant to announce administrative reforms to the governing elite and to reinforce central authority. During the Tanzimat period a private press also took the stage with papers such as Ceride-i Havâdis, Tercümân-ı Ahvâl, Tasvir-i Efkâr, Muhbir and İbret, but for a long time this movement remained largely confined to Istanbul.

What opened the way for the press in the provinces was the Provincial Regulation (Vilâyet Nizamnâmesi) of 1864. It provided for a printing press in each of the newly created provinces, and its ninth article placed these presses under the mektupçu, the official in charge of the province's correspondence. Working inside the government house, these presses printed yearbooks, calendars, and religious, literary and scientific books, and the official provincial gazettes were published there as well. Because they were also open to private commissions, and because they trained compositors, lithographers, distributors and other staff much as a school would, these presses laid the groundwork for the publishing activity that followed in the provinces.

Under the administrative arrangements of the late nineteenth century, Amasya was the centre of a sanjak attached to the province of Sivas. Merzifon, Köprü (Vezirköprü), Mecitözü, Lâdik, Havza and Gümüşhacıköy were the districts of this sanjak. In Sivas, the province's first and only press was established inside the government house in AH 1282 (1865/1866). According to records from 1870, it was headed by Mehmet Raif Efendi, director of the correspondence office; the lithographer was Ali Rıza Efendi, with Mehmet Emin Efendi as his assistant and Yusuf Ziya Efendi as apprentice. Together with Armenian compositors, newspaper distributors and other workers, the staff numbered 10 by 1880/1881 and 18 by 1907/1908. Between 1870 and 1907 this press printed a total of 17 provincial yearbooks.

The first local newspapers in Sivas were short-lived Armenian-language publications that appeared in 1869 and 1870. The official provincial gazette began publication on 24 March 1879. Initially printed in Turkish in both Arabic and Armenian script, it appeared only in Arabic script from 6 February 1882 onward and continued until 1941. Its readership covered Sivas, Karahisar-ı Şarkî, Tokat and Amasya. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the printed news available to the people of Amasya came largely from the columns of this gazette and from the pages of the yearbooks. Despite this activity in the provincial capital, Amasya's own newspapers would appear only in the Second Constitutional Era.

The First Publications: Newspapers of the Armenian Community

According to Hüseyin Menç, the first newspapers published in Amasya belonged to the town's Armenians. Between 1911 and 1915 the Armenian community produced three publications, one of them in Merzifon. In 1911 a weekly newspaper called Abaraj and a fortnightly magazine called Amassia began to appear; Abaraj was later turned into a monthly magazine. Of these publications, some sections of which were printed in Turkish using Armenian script, Amassia was printed at the press in the Armenian church and edited by Minas İpekciyan, a member of the Hunchak Party. There is also information about another Armenian paper called Rock, meaning "Rock" in English and "Kaya" in Turkish.

These publications were short-lived. İpekciyan lost his life during the turmoil of 1915, and with the deportation of the Armenians from Amasya that began the same year, the papers ceased publication. The first reflection in print of the town's multilingual, multi-community character thus remained a parenthesis of only a few years. How much of these publications survives today, and what exactly they contained, is not clear from the available studies.

The Turkish Newspapers of the Constitutional Era

Recent research has pushed back the date of the first Turkish-language newspapers published in Amasya. The 1909 and 1912 volumes of the Annuaire Oriental, the commercial yearbook of the Levant, contain no information on newspapers in Amasya. The 1913 and 1914 volumes, however, list Amassia, owned by Minas Efendi, and Müdde-i Umûmî (The Public Prosecutor), managed by Şükrü Efendi. The 1921 and 1922 volumes list only Müdde-i Umûmî, although Emel is known to have been in print by then. Mustafa Arıkan therefore stresses that the yearbooks must be treated with caution and, on the basis of archival documents and newspaper collections, argues that the first Turkish newspapers in Amasya began publication by 1911 at the latest. During the Constitutional years there were two Turkish newspapers in the town: Müdde-i Umûmî and Taşdemir.

Şükrü Efendi of Kars and Müdde-i Umûmî

Şükrü Efendi of Kars, owner and editor-in-chief of Müdde-i Umûmî, appears in the Ottoman archival record as a man with a decidedly eventful past. His father had served the state as a soldier, and when his native Kars fell to Russia after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, Şükrü Efendi moved to Havza, a district centre in the province of Sivas, where he worked for a time as an advocate. In 1894 he lodged a complaint against Yusuf Cemal Efendi, presiding judge of the criminal section of the Amasya Court of First Instance, accusing him of insulting people with business before the court, using coarse language towards spectators and throwing them out, and delaying criminal cases to the point of causing some detainees to die in prison. In 1897 he accused Bekir Pasha, the former governor (mutasarrıf) of Amasya, of corruption. In both cases the investigations found the allegations groundless, and it was decided that Şükrü Efendi himself should be investigated for inciting the population against state officials.

His next move caused a far greater stir. When it emerged that he had encouraged some members of the Greek Orthodox (Rum) community of Havza to complain against the district governor that their worship was being restricted, and even to apply to the Greek legation, he was exiled to Isparta on the grounds that he had "corrupted the people" and needed to "reform himself". From exile he wrote repeatedly to the Ministry of the Interior, protesting his innocence, saying he had been slandered and that his family was in dire straits. The inquiry found that he had one son and owned no property, and his request was judged reasonable; but because he had been involved in many incidents in Havza, it was decided that he should reside in Amasya instead. In 1903 he applied for a post as advocate to the tobacco monopoly (Régie), and after the Constitution was restored he applied for permission to publish a daily newspaper, which was granted on 19 April 1909.

The first issue appeared in Istanbul on 24 May 1909. Its chief writer was Hristaki Efendi of Sivas. Beneath the masthead ran the line "An Ottoman newspaper, published for now twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays, to become a daily in future". Printed in four pages at the Vatan press, it cost 10 para an issue. In his introductory article in the first issue, titled "Prayer and Indictment", Şükrü Bey offered prayers for the cadres who had brought about the Constitution and for the new sultan Mehmed V Reşad, and declared that his paper would be a servant of the new era. The other pieces in the issue praised the new order and condemned the regime of Abdülhamid II; apart from advertisements for a plot of land, a shop and a printing press for sale in Istanbul, there is no local news.

When the paper moved to Amasya is not known with certainty. Of the surviving copies, issue 92 was published in Amasya on 15 June 1912. Its price had risen to 20 para, and it now came out weekly in eight pages set in two columns. Its office was in Selağzı, and its owner, director and writer was now Şükrü of Kars alone. This issue shows how closely the paper engaged with local affairs once it had settled in the provinces. It followed developments concerning Nuri Efendi, the Amasya examining magistrate under investigation for bribery, and appealed to the municipality about unlit, muddy streets under the heading "A Cry to the Municipality". The problems of the refugees (muhacir) settled in Amasya, the public-spirited citizens who donated to the Aviation Society, regulations of the tobacco monopoly, thefts and the fight against locusts in the fields all stand side by side on the same pages. The approving mention of a play titled "The End of Yıldız", staged by a group of young people for the benefit of the Aviation Society, shows that the anti-Abdülhamid line continued in the provinces too. Yet in issue 135, dated 5 April 1913, the page count had fallen to four and the price to 10 para, critical news and commentary had all but disappeared, and their place had been taken by official notices from the Merzifon land registry office, the Amasya enforcement office and the court of first instance.

Taşdemir

Taşdemir, the other Turkish newspaper of the Constitutional period, had never been mentioned in publications on the history of the Amasya press until Arıkan's study. Owned and edited by Mehmet Rıfat Efendi of Tokat, it published its first issue on 25 February 1911 (26 Safar 1329), and this is the only copy that survives today. Beneath its masthead ran the line "Discusses everything, published in Amasya every week on Saturdays". An issue cost ten para; the annual subscription was free for villagers and 20 kuruş for everyone else, a detail that shows at once how hard it was to win readers in the provinces and how much importance the paper placed on reaching the villages. It was a small-format paper of four pages set in two columns.

The first issue of Taşdemir contains a piece replying to Müdde-i Umûmî, which clearly shows that Şükrü Efendi's paper had begun appearing in Amasya earlier. The unsigned editorial praises the Constitution, presents the paper's very existence as a product of the new era and asks readers for their support. The same issue deals with the hardships of a severe winter, roads closed by snow, the resulting shortage of necessities and soaring prices. According to Arıkan, these pieces in the first issues of both papers, focused on the needs of the community, are a sign that the freedom of the Constitutional era reached as far as the provinces; the transformation of Müdde-i Umûmî by 1913 into a publication made up largely of official notices suggests that this atmosphere soon dissipated.

The Amasya Press During the War of Independence

Amasya holds a key place at the outset of the Turkish War of Independence. Mustafa Kemal Pasha arrived in the town on 12 June 1919; the Amasya Circular was issued on 22 June; the Amasya talks were held on 20-22 October 1919, and the protocols signed there paved the way for the convening of the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies. A Society for the Defence of Rights was founded in the town on 14 June 1919. This political activity was reflected in the press, and between 1920 and 1922 seven newspapers were launched in Amasya and Merzifon: Türközü, Yeşilırmak, Emel, Tecelli, Hakikat, Hak Yolu and Amasya.

The first Turkish newspaper of this period was Türközü, which appeared as a single issue on 1 April 1920. A weekly measuring 25 by 34 centimetres and set in three columns, it carried above its masthead the words "Our calling is to expound Islamic ideas" and below it "An independent national and social Turkish newspaper containing scholarly, literary and economic discussions, published for now once a week". An annual subscription cost 130 kuruş, six months 70 kuruş, and a single issue 100 para. A week later, on 8 April 1920, the same paper appeared as Yeşilırmak, with its owner, press, price and masthead texts entirely unchanged. Its title had been composed from ornamental corner type, with "Yeşil" in large letters and "ırmak" in small ones. This too remained a single issue. On 14 April 1920 the paper came out, with no great change in appearance, under the name Emel (Aspiration). The reason for the changes of name is unknown. Arıkan argues that since these three publications shared the same owner, press, pricing and format, it is more reasonable to treat them as one newspaper, and hence to date the beginning of Emel to 1 April rather than 14 April 1920. Another study, relying on a source from 1964, gives the date of the first issue as 15 April 1920.

The other newspapers of the War of Independence were shorter-lived. Hak Yolu (The Path of Right), known from a single issue dated 5 February 1921, was a twice-weekly paper carrying the line "The voice of the people, the cry of the people" beneath its masthead; its licence holder was Lütfi Kemal and its chief writer Turabizade Cevat. Hakikat (Truth) was published by Mehmet Sadık and İsmail Hakkı Beys, two of Emel's writers. Launched on 10 March 1921 and bearing the line "An independent Turkish newspaper published on Mondays and Thursdays", it appeared for nine months while Emel was suspended and closed when Emel resumed. An annual subscription cost 500 kuruş, six months 250 kuruş, and an issue 5 kuruş.

Tecelli (Manifestation), published in Merzifon, appeared every fifteen days. Issues 12 and 13, dated 29 July and 12 August 1920, survive; beneath the masthead they read "Published for now once every fifteen days. A social, literary, scientific and economic newspaper." Its owner and chief writer was Osmanzâde Ahmet Hamdi Bey. An annual subscription cost 120 kuruş and six months 60 kuruş, rising to 130 and 65 kuruş for readers outside the town. Selling at 5 kuruş an issue, it ran to 11 pages in two columns and was printed at the Serabyan Press in Merzifon. Because so few copies of these papers have survived, their editorial policies are difficult to establish in detail, but it is clear that all of them supported the national struggle.

Amasya'da Emel: A Dissenting Local Voice

Emel was launched on the eve of the opening of the Grand National Assembly by Mehmet Sırrı (Soğukpınar) Bey, who at the time owned the only printing press in Amasya. The paper was printed at the Sadâ-yı Millet press; its owner was also its printer, a fact that illustrates well how the provincial journalist of the day was a versatile craftsman who gathered the news, wrote it and printed it. Appearing as "an independent Turkish newspaper containing national, scholarly and social discussions, published for now once a week", Emel managed to keep going, with great difficulty, until November 1920. In October it was printed on wrapping paper collected from grocers, and its financial plight, together with that of other newspapers in Anatolia, was raised in the Grand National Assembly on 28 February 1921. As a result of the efforts of the General Directorate of the Press to support local papers that played an important role in propaganda work, its need for newsprint was met and Emel resumed publication on 24 November 1921.

Among the oldest surviving copies is issue 77 of 1 February 1923, whose masthead reads "A national Turkish newspaper, published once a week". An issue cost 100 para, a six-month subscription 75 kuruş and an annual subscription 150 kuruş; advertisements cost 6 kuruş a line, and this issue consisted of only two pages. After the proclamation of the Republic the paper described itself as "A progressive, republican, national Turkish newspaper, published once a week". Mustafa Said was appointed chief writer, the price of an issue rose to 5 kuruş, and the line rate for advertisements first fell to 3 kuruş and was later set by negotiation.

On 14 April 1923 the paper celebrated its third anniversary with a special issue. It carried a long article on the history, present condition and needs of the districts of Gümüş and Hacıköy. The forthcoming parliamentary elections were discussed, and the candidates the paper wished to see as deputies for Amasya were introduced to readers: Hüseyin Hüsameddin Efendi, author of Amasya Tarihi (History of Amasya), Hacı Tevfik Efendi of the ulema, İsmail Hakkı Pasha and Şirvanizade Tahir Bey. In this issue, in which the paper openly took sides in local politics, Mehmet Sırrı Bey also wrote a history of Emel. He recounted that in the hardest days of the national struggle the paper had been one of the strongest supporters of national independence, that it had proposed the formation of guidance committees to protect the people from subversion, and that to this end 1,200 copies a week had been distributed free in the towns and villages of Amasya and Tokat. The thanks offered at the end of the article to Ağaoğlu Ahmet, Director General of the Press, and to Osman Bey, the mutasarrıf who had stood by Emel "in spirit and at heart", show that the paper was not at odds with the local administration at this point. In an open letter in the same issue, the editor Turabizade A. Cevat pledged that after the peace the paper would fight fearlessly against those who did business while hiding behind the words "independence of the homeland".

The pledge was soon honoured. While embracing the principles and reforms of the Republic, Emel followed a sharply critical line towards the local authorities in and around Amasya. Foreign news was compiled from the Istanbul press and the news agencies. In the issue of 1 February 1923, an article titled "What Did They Give Us", on the first round of the Lausanne negotiations, was printed together with the draft treaty articles, and the offers made to Turkey were harshly criticised. The Mosul question was followed under the heading "The Question of the Day", and on 23 September 1924 news from Azerbaijan, Georgia and Dagestan was given under the title "The Caucasian Revolution". In an editorial signed by Mustafa Said, titled "A Lesson to the World", the writer complained of the high cost of living and the unavailability of basic necessities, and, citing Greece as an example, called for customs duties to be lifted at least on essential goods. The piece closed with an appeal to those in power: "We await those who hold our destiny in their hands to bring us, by whatever means, safely to shore at last."

The paper's main weight, however, lay in Amasya's own affairs. In the issue of 12 June 1924, an open letter addressed to the new governor, Hilmi Bey, claimed that some former governors had ruled the town by coercion and that provincial business had therefore ground to a halt. It listed problems of education and public works, and the condition of the roads, of young people, of officials who went unpaid and of destitute refugees, writing that the districts and sub-districts, the provincial centre included, were like "ruins rescued from a fire". The most striking complaint was directed at the "mütegallibe", the local strongmen who did business between the villagers and the government: drawn from the notables and leading men of the area, this group profited at the villagers' expense, used its wealth to bring officials under its sway and formed an "autocratic" class. The same issue also reported that since the wartime mobilisation no elections had been held in many neighbourhoods, so that these strongmen had seized the headmen's seals and were committing unlawful acts.

Emel frequently clashed with local administrators. Sabri Bey, director of the Sultanî (secondary school), was obliged to respond to reports that duplicate salaries had been paid at his institution. İbrahim Hakkı Bey, director of the orphanage (darüleytam), sent a long rebuttal to articles claiming that people were employed at the school without official posts and that purchases had been mishandled; the paper declined to print the text in full on the grounds that it was too long, and passed a summary on to readers, again in a critical tone. Another dispute, which ran for weeks, was conducted with the mayor over the subject of "prostitution in Amasya". The paper was taken to court by the director of resettlement over one of its articles, and it did not shrink from arguing even with the new governor, to whom it wrote open letters. This combative stance must have been reported to Mustafa Kemal Pasha as opposition to the regime during his visit to Amasya on 24 September 1924, for in its six-page issue of 2 October 1924, published on the occasion of the visit, the paper felt obliged to defend itself. According to this article, Emel was loyal to the young Republic and its principles, and its opposition sprang from the aim of establishing the rule of law on the basis of those same principles.

The sources give different figures for the number of issues published before the alphabet reform of 1928. One, citing Menç, speaks of 264 issues, while another record, also based on information compiled by Menç, states that 179 issues were published at intervals up to 1928. Emel resumed publication on 21 October 1950. This time its masthead carried the line "A Turkish newspaper serving the Republic and the aspirations of the people", and its volume numbering, "1-29", linked it to the earlier series. During the Republican period the paper's press served other publications too; the newspapers Amasya, Yeşilyurt and Amasya Postası, and Yeşilırmak, the magazine of the Amasya People's House, were among those printed at the Emel press.

The Official Provincial Gazette: Amasya

The most important publication in Amasya in the last phase of the War of Independence and the early years of the Republic was the paper that bore the town's name, Amasya. Carrying the line "The Weekly Official Gazette of the Province" beneath its masthead and printed at the provincial press in Selağzı, it has a founding date on which the sources disagree. Published studies give 1922, while issues printed after the alphabet reform state that the paper was founded in 1921. One of the earliest known copies today is issue 3, dated 25 May 1922. Its editor-in-chief is said to have been Süreyya Sami, and it is reported to have started as a small two-page paper that grew larger from issue 27 onward; yet none of the accessible copies names an owner or editor-in-chief. Its office was in Selağzı. In early 1925 an issue cost 5 kuruş, six months 130 kuruş and a year 250 kuruş; soon afterwards the price was lowered to 3 kuruş an issue and 150 kuruş a year. The great majority of the issues from 1925 to 1932 are preserved in the archives of the Grand National Assembly.

As might be expected of a provincial gazette, Amasya carried local news. Under the heading "In the Provincial General Assembly" it reported the debates of the Amasya Provincial General Assembly, the requests submitted to it and important developments concerning the town. Columns titled "Police News" or "Gendarmerie Incidents" covered crime, while others reported appointments and promotions, prominent visitors to the town and news about local institutions. The two most valuable features today are the Amasya market price lists and the sports news. The local prices of barley, wheat, rice, chickpeas, lentils, poppy seed, sugar, fat, kerosene, sheep, goats, cattle and gold can be followed week by week in these lists. Reports of football matches between Birlik Güç Yurdu and Albayrak İdman Yurdu, and between Albayrak İdman Yurdu and Merzifon Gençler Birliği, make particularly enjoyable reading for their language and style.

The gazette's real weight, however, lay in carrying the voice of the centre to the provinces. There is hardly an issue from 1925 to 1930 without new laws, decrees, official proclamations or international treaties. The Village Law, the Road Obligation Law, the law on teachers' salaries, the laws on the tobacco and cigarette-paper administration and the sugar monopoly, the treaties of friendship with Albania and Spain, and the proclamation of the Independence Tribunal are only a few of them. Coverage of the Sheikh Said Rebellion, the Law on the Maintenance of Order and the activities of the Independence Tribunal shows even more clearly that the paper served to consolidate central authority in the provinces. An article of 29 July 1925 titled "The Old Administration, the New Administration" contrasted the evils of the old regime with the virtues of the young Republic. For weeks the paper published, on the one hand, the ruling of the Directorate of Religious Affairs on the wearing of headgear, and on the other, rules of etiquette explaining how to greet and shake hands while wearing a hat.

Educating its readers was also an explicit aim. In a series titled "Mutual Duties" it sought to build a sense of citizenship by explaining the reciprocal obligations of the municipality and the public. For weeks it offered information on goat breeding, and it published articles on buying domestic goods, supporting the Turkish Aviation Society, combating malaria and scabies, and dental health. Alongside these, commentary on domestic and foreign affairs, literary pieces and news about refugees also found space in its pages. In these respects Amasya remains one of the richest sources for the daily life of the town in the early years of the Republic.

Two Newspapers, Two Outlooks

Emel and Amasya were published in the same town in the same years, yet they often looked at the same events from diametrically opposed windows. On 14 January 1925 Amasya reported that the orphanage visited by Governor Hilmi Bey and members of the Provincial General Assembly was running in perfect order and had been praised for its success. Only about six months earlier, however, Emel had criticised the orphanage's director, İbrahim Hakkı Bey, and engaged in a public dispute with him. The divergence was just as clear on the question of the people's livelihood. While Emel held the authorities responsible for the shortage of basic goods and called for lower customs duties, an article in Amasya titled "Thoughtlessness" argued that those who complained of being unable to find work should look for the fault in themselves and admit that they had failed to become "men of business", and that the real problem of those who struggled to make ends meet was that they knew nothing of economy and spent five for every one they earned.

In Arıkan's assessment, Amasya was the loudest voice of the new regime in the region, while Emel, though it embraced the regime's fundamental principles, was a centre of opposition at the local level. The one stands out for its legal texts and educational articles, the other for its criticism of shortcomings in public institutions and the disputes this provoked. Read together as two complementary halves, the two papers bring into view both the official face of Amasya in the early Republic and its everyday grievances.

The Amasya Press in the Multi-Party Era

With the transition to multi-party politics the number of newspapers in Amasya rose rapidly. After the Democrat Party came to power in 1950, the replacement of the licensing requirement with a simple declaration also made this growth easier. The weekly Amasya, published by Ali Şevket Çaycı, issued its first number on 20 March 1950; after a period of closure it resumed on 4 January 1954 with the slogan "published for now once a week". Hüsnü Saydut launched Amasya Postası on 20 December 1950, and Muzaffer Eken started the weekly Yeşilırmak on 6 March 1953 and Yeşilırmak Postası on 24 December 1954. R. Bağcıoğlu's Demokrat Amasya began on 12 November 1954, Lütfi Akcan's daily Amasya Sesi on 21 April 1955, Necmettin Çeliköz's 12 Haziran on 12 June 1958, and Ahmet Can Demiray's Yanık Aşık on 22 April 1959. There were also student papers such as the fortnightly Günışığı, launched on 26 October 1955, and magazines such as the monthly Gençliğin Sesi, started by Ruhi Yıldırım on 15 July 1957.

The founding stories of these papers are bound up with the town's memory. 12 Haziran took its name from the day in 1919 on which Mustafa Kemal Pasha arrived in Amasya. The owner of this evening paper, which came out in two pages every day except Sunday, was Necmettin Çeliköz, and its editor was Hasan Fatih Kartal. Initially printed at the Turhal press in Tokat, it was printed from issue 27, dated 16 July 1958, at the 12 Haziran press in Amasya, which later also printed Mücadele and Yanık Aşık. Yeşilırmak Postası was at first printed at the Demokrat press in Samsun and became a daily from 19 March 1956. By 1960 its licence holder was Muzaffer Eken, its publishing director and chief reporter Ruhi Yıldırım, and Şükrü Karadayı looked after the commercial affairs of the paper and the press. It was typeset and printed at the Yeşilırmak press in Amasya. Still in existence today, this press also printed other publications such as Yeşil Amasya, Bizim Şehir and Çağrı.

The Democrat Party years were turbulent for the Amasya press. Almost every day the pages carried a quarrel with another paper. The disputes of Çaycı's Amasya with Yeşilyurt in 1950, with Emel and 12 Haziran as soon as it resumed in 1954, and later with Demokrat Amasya are the first things that strike the eye in the papers of the period. The tension between Amasya Sesi and Yeşilırmak Postası reached the courts, and in 1955 both sides were sentenced to six months in prison and a fine of 5,000 lira. At the root of these quarrels lay the question of official advertising. Although the regulations required a paper to be a daily and to have been publishing for six months, the concentration of the power of allocation in a single hand meant that papers which did not meet these conditions could still receive notices. Every issue of the weekly Demokrat Amasya carried at least three, and sometimes six or seven, official notices; Amasya Sesi, with 14,483 lira of official advertising revenue in 1956, alone took half of all the advertising revenue distributed in Amasya that year. In early 1960, when rumours spread that official notices would henceforth be distributed nationally through a separate official gazette, Yeşilırmak Postası saw such an arrangement as favouring genuine journalists, while Çaycı's Amasya, under the headline "The Anatolian Press Is Collapsing" on 27 January 1960, called on the Anatolian Journalists' Association to take action.

The Press Advertising Agency and the 1964 Merger

After the coup of 27 May 1960 the distribution of official advertising was reorganised, and on 2 January 1961 the Press Advertising Agency (Basın İlan Kurumu) was established by Law No. 195. The agency's first general assembly decision, dated 8 April 1961, set detailed conditions for newspapers wishing to carry official notices, covering content, length of publication, actual sales, staffing and page size. Papers had to reach a print run of at least 400, give more space to local news, devote no more than a third of their pages to notices and advertising, and be printed where they were published. Depending on page area, they were required to employ an editor and one to three reporters. In provinces such as Amasya where the agency had no branch, the process was run through inspection boards attached to the governorship.

The Amasya papers viewed the new agency with both hope and anxiety. On 3 February 1961 Amasya Sesi wrote that the regulation would raise the quality of Anatolian newspapers and stop papers that existed only to obtain a press card or official notices. At the time, however, every paper in the town came out in two pages measuring 27-29 by 40-41 centimetres, none employed a reporter, and their mastheads named only the owner and the editor. On 23 May 1961 Amasya Sesi announced the new conditions to its readers as follows: "From 1 June newspapers must come out in 4 pages. Under the new decree printing must take place where the paper is published. Papers that suspend publication for 3 days a year will receive no notices. The category system has been fixed. No notices for single-sheet papers." Emel and Yeşilırmak Postası moved to four pages on 1 June 1961 and Amasya Sesi on 2 June. The papers enlarged their editorial boards and began hiring reporters. During this process Yeşilırmak Postası brought writers such as Mahmut Yağmur and Talip Apaydın onto its editorial board and announced its correspondents in Ankara, Istanbul, İzmir and the districts in every issue.

On 14 June 1961 a meeting chaired by the governor of Amasya was held to form the Press Inspection Board; by lot, Muzaffer Eken (Yeşilırmak Postası) was chosen as the employers' representative and Ali Savtekin (Emel) as the representative of the journalists. As soon as the board began work, the quarrel over notices flared up again. 12 Haziran claimed that the board had been dissolved following its complaint, that Amasya Sesi and Yeşilırmak Postası had unlawfully received 4,000 lira worth of notices and that their notices had been cut; Yeşilırmak Postası denied this and wrote that 12 Haziran was not a newspaper but a bulletin. In 1962-1963 the papers enlarged their format to 34 by 50 centimetres, and in 1963-1964 they increased their page count to six. Filling the expanded pages was not easy. With little local news to hand, they resorted to stories reprinted from the national press, abundant photographs, frequent pictures of foreign actresses and repeated pages; from 1963 Yeşilırmak Postası introduced sport and astrology, and from 1962 Amasya Sesi ran literary pages aimed at young people.

In June 1964 the mutual accusations of "unjust official notices" reached their peak. Yeşilırmak Postası ran a headline saying that the notices of Amasya Sesi and 12 Haziran had been cut for a month; Amasya Sesi, for its part, announced that Yeşilırmak Postası and Emel had made false declarations about their journalist staff and that the notice fees paid to them would be reclaimed. Thereupon Governor Kemalettin Gazezoğlu gathered the owners of the papers receiving official notices in July 1964 and proposed that they merge. İsmet Ongun, owner of Emel, who attended the meeting, described the process in an interview given to Nazan Kahraman in 2019: "In those years the conditions for official notices had become very heavy for us. And official notices had increased a great deal because the land survey was passing through Amasya. [...] One day the governor gathered us all and said: Friends, I am cutting your notices. Put an end to this. I am merging you." According to Ongun, the governor appointed a lawyer to handle the merger; because the partners held different political views, the paper was registered in their wives' names and they themselves became its employees. Şükrü Karadayı of Yeşilırmak Postası likewise recalled that none of them had thought of merging and that they merged because the governor summoned them.

From 16 October 1964 Emel, Amasya Sesi and 12 Haziran ceased to appear, and only Yeşilırmak Postası was published on behalf of the four papers. In an article titled "On Appearing as a Single Newspaper", the partners acknowledged "an element of truth" in comments about the financial side of the decision, but pledged that the paper would support no political party and would voice the concerns of the people of Amasya. The partnership did not continue under this name, and on 23 November 1964 it became a new paper called Sabah (Morning). Its owner, on behalf of the four papers, was Muzaffer Eken, and its managing editor A. Lütfi Akcan. With the slogan "The press is the free voice of the nation", it was printed as a politically independent daily at the Amasya Press in four pages every day except Sunday. The change of name was explained by differences of opinion among the partners and technical problems. For a long time Amasya's daily-newspaper advertising revenue went to this paper and was shared equally among the four partners. The merger lasted twenty-two years; when Lütfi Akcan withdrew in 1986, the paper continued for two more years as Hür Sabah, and the partnership ended with its closure in 1988. Kahraman regards this merger as one of the earliest and longest-lasting newspaper mergers in Turkish press history; in her view its real cause was official advertising revenue, and the process was directly steered by the state.

Local Media in Amasya Today

The accumulated experience of more than a century of the Amasya press continues today. The local newspapers in the town's official listings include Yeşilırmak, Yorum, Haberci, Art Amasya and Amasya Postası in the centre; Halk İçin Bilgi, Olay, Pusula and Merzifon Haber in Merzifon; and Suluova Yeni Haber, Gümüşhacıköy Haber and Taşova Havadis in the districts. Some names carry echoes of the past: the name Yeşilırmak, first used for a single issue in 1920 and taken up again by Muzaffer Eken in 1953, still heads a local newspaper today. Local television and radio stations, online news sites and the provincial offices of national agencies also play their part in the town's flow of news. At the time of Kahraman's research, Emel's legacy was being carried on as Yeni Emel and that of Yeşilırmak Postası under the name Yeşilırmak, by the same families.

A significant part of this history can be read today. Copies of Müdde-i Umûmî, Taşdemir, Hakikat and Tecelli are in the digital collection of the National Library, while more than seventy issues of the Amasya gazette and nearly thirty of Emel are held in a digital archive open to transcription. Most of the issues in this latter collection come from the Library of the Grand National Assembly and from Hüseyin Menç's personal archive. Most runs are incomplete and scattered; as Menç himself stressed, of most of the Armenian publications and Constitutional-era papers only a few issues, or only their names, remain. Even so, what survives is an indispensable source for anyone wishing to look at the everyday life of Amasya over the last hundred years, from muddy streets and complaints against local strongmen to the fight against locusts and football matches.

Chronology

1831: Takvim-i Vekayi, the first Turkish-language newspaper, was published.

1864: The Provincial Regulation provided for printing presses in the provinces.

1865/1866: The Sivas provincial press was established.

24 March 1879: The Sivas provincial gazette, whose coverage included Amasya, began publication.

19 April 1909: Şükrü Efendi of Kars was granted permission to publish Müdde-i Umûmî.

24 May 1909: The first issue of Müdde-i Umûmî appeared in Istanbul.

25 February 1911: Taşdemir, published by Mehmet Rıfat Efendi of Tokat, appeared in Amasya.

1911: The Armenian newspaper Abaraj and the magazine Amassia began publication.

15 June 1912: Issue 92 of Müdde-i Umûmî was published in Amasya.

1915: The Armenian publications came to an end.

1 April 1920: Türközü was published.

8 April 1920: The same paper appeared under the name Yeşilırmak.

14 April 1920: The paper took the name Emel.

28 February 1921: The difficulties of Anatolian newspapers, Emel among them, were debated in the Grand National Assembly.

10 March 1921: Hakikat began publication.

24 November 1921: Emel resumed publication.

1921/1922: Amasya, the official gazette of the province, was founded.

2 October 1924: Emel defended itself in a six-page issue published on the occasion of Mustafa Kemal Pasha's visit.

21 October 1950: Emel resumed publication.

21 April 1955: Lütfi Akcan's Amasya Sesi began publication.

12 June 1958: The newspaper 12 Haziran began publication.

2 January 1961: The Press Advertising Agency was established.

14 June 1961: The Amasya Press Inspection Board was formed.

16 October 1964: Four papers began appearing as a single newspaper under the name Yeşilırmak Postası.

23 November 1964: The joint paper took the name Sabah.

1986: Lütfi Akcan left the partnership, and the paper continued as Hür Sabah.

1988: Hür Sabah closed and the partnership came to an end.

1993: Hüseyin Menç's Amasya Basın Tarihi was published.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Ottoman Historical Local Newspapers archive: issue lists of the Amasya, Emel and Yeşilırmak newspapers and information compiled by Hüseyin Menç. amasya.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Mustafa Arıkan, "Amasya Basın Tarihine İlişkin Bazı Yeni Tespitler", Karadeniz İncelemeleri Dergisi (Journal of Black Sea Studies), 36 (2024), pp. 159-182.
  • Nazan Kahraman, "Amasya Basınında Erken Tarihli Bir Gazete Birleşmesi Örneği: Sabah Gazetesi", Gümüşhane Üniversitesi İletişim Fakültesi Elektronik Dergisi (e-GİFDER), 7, International Turkish World Press Symposium special issue (2019), pp. 1609-1636.
  • Nurullah Atasoy, Amasya Vilayeti Gazetesi (1923-1928), unpublished master's thesis, Kırklareli University, 2014.

Official sources

  • Hüseyin Menç, Amasya Basın Tarihi, Amasya Municipality Cultural Publications, Istanbul 1993.
  • Hüseyin Menç, Millî Mücadele Yıllarında Amasya, Amasya Municipality Cultural Publications, 2007.
  • Governorship of Amasya, list of press organisations.

Books

  • Mehmet Evsile, "Millî Mücadele Döneminde Amasya", Millî Mücadelenin Yerel Tarihi 1918-1923, vol. 5, Turkish Academy of Sciences.

Online sources