| Emin Çölaşan | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 14, 1942 Ankara, Turkey |
| Education | Business management |
| Occupation | Columnist, writer |
| Spouse(s) | Tansel Çölaşan |
| Nationality | Turkish |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Notable credit(s) | Milliyet (1977–1985), Hürriyet (1985–2007), Sözcü (2007–present) |
Emin Çölaşan (born 14 March 1942) is a Turkish investigative journalist, whose daily column appeared in the country's internationally best-known and most influential mass-circulation newspaper, Istanbul-based Hürriyet, for 22 years, from 1985 to 2007.[1] Due to his outspoken positions on sensitive domestic issues, he is considered one of the most controversial names in Turkey's written press and, since 2007, has continued his column in Sözcü.
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A native of Ankara, Emin Çölaşan was born into a Cretan Turkish family whose surname, which literally means "desert strider", is a reference to his grandmother who was exiled by Sultan Abdülhamid II deep into the desert interior of Libya. His maternal grandfather, Refik Şevket İnce, born in Polichnitos near Mytilene (modern-day Greek island of Lesbos), served with the country's leader, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and, subsequently, in ministerial posts during the 1920s and into the 1950s, and his father served in the State Meteorological Service where he became general director. Çölaşan and his wife Tansel (born 1943), who holds the position of chief advocate for the Turkish Council of State (Danıştay),[2] are known to prefer vacationing in Greece on his grandfather's birth island of Lesbos . Tansel Çölaşan was also in the news due to being an eye-witness and survivor of the May 2006 attack on the council's premises by the Turkish fundamentalist terrorist and Ergenekon suspect Alparslan Arslan.[3]
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 started his journalism career in 1977 at the Istanbul daily Milliyet, shifting in 1985 as a regular columnist for Hürriyet, an influential position which he has maintained for nearly a quarter of a century. He is also the author of numerous books which focus primarily on malpractices within governmental and public circles in Turkey, as well as an instigator and/or party in frequent polemics centering on his discoveries of official malfeasance and misconduct.
Çölaşan had been a virulent critic of Turgut Özal, Turkey's president from 1983 to 1989, who became the target of his 1980s books Turgut'un Serüveni [Turgut's Adventure] and Turgut Nereden Koşuyor? [Where is Turgut Running From?]. In the late 2000s, he focused his in-print attacks upon rival columnist Mehmet Barlas and Justice and Development Party (AKP) mayor of Ankara İ. Melih Gökçek. Çölaşan made a point of pronouncing the mayor's name in full, in reference to a Turkish four-letter word; a practice for which he was fined 40,000 lira.[4] The two finally appeared on a televised debate,[5] which received a warning from the state censorship board for indecency.[6] Çölaşan also criticized the incumbent AKP government, which is believed to the reason behind his 13 August 2007 firing from Hürriyet after 22 years of service.[7][8]