Hakan Albayrak : Early life, Works, Imprisonment, Gaza flotilla Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hakan Albayrak

Turkish journalist and activist

Emira Albayrak

(m. 1996)

Children2RelativesSinan Albayrak (brother)

Hakan Albayrak (born 4 June 1968) is a Turkish journalist and activist.

Early life

Hakan Albayrak was born in Hanau, in the German state Hessen to Ziya Albayrak, who went to Germany in the early 1960s, seeking work as part of a formal guest worker programme, and his wife Gülbeyaz Albayrak. The Albayrak's are of Circassian origin (Hatuqwai and Kabarday).

In 1970 the family moved to Rodenbach. In first grade of Adolf Reichwein Elementary School, he began writing stories.

In 1980 he left for Turkey, shortly before the military putsch on the 12th of September, "...the day I quickly grew up." Always uncomfortable with school life, he wrote the short story Mutiny in School in third grade of secondary school. After leaving high school in the second week of third grade, he now lives a life without diploma.

Works

After one edition of Halk'a Işık (1983), at the age of 15 and with money lend by his mother, he published the cult Çete magazine with Nihat Genç in 1989.

For the Ihlas News Agency (IHA) he reported from Gaza and East Jerusalem about the Intifada. Again for IHA, he went to Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, in 1994, where he became IHH (Humanitarian Relief Foundation) representative for humanitarian aid.

Albayrak is co-founder of Yeni Şafak daily newspaper, the weekly Gerçek Hayat and the weekly Sancaktar.

He works as a columnist at the daily Star and as executive editor at Sancaktar, published by Eyüb Gökhan Özekin.

Imprisonment

In 2000, he wrote an article published in Milli Gazete, for which he was sentenced to 15 months in prison, in 2003, under Crimes Against Atatürk Law No. 5816. His sentence was reduced to six months, which he served in Kalecik Prison. After the conviction he commented: "No problem, plenty of time to enjoy leisure and read books."

Gaza flotilla

He was on board of the MV Mavi Marmara in the Gaza flotilla raid, and detained by the Israeli Defence Forces. He was deported to Turkey.

Political activity

In 2019, Albayrak was one of the founders of the newly formed Future Party.^[1]

Personal life

He lives in Ankara, is married with Emira Albayrak, and has two daughters, Ayşe (1997) and Fatma (2002). Ayşe and Fatma are working together on short films and writing books. Hakan is the brother of actor Sinan Albayrak.