In business since 1925, Istanbul's Apoyevmatini is the last Greek daily to be published in Turkey, serving what is a dwindling population of Greek speakers that today numbers in the thousands. The paper has been struggling for years and only a few days ago came very closing to finally shutting down, until an internet campaign launched on its behalf came to the rescue. From Hurriyet:
Turkey’s only Greek-language daily will continue to publish after an Internet campaign saved the 86-year-old Apoyevmatini from bankruptcy.
Apoyevmatini printed a Turkish-language cover story on Tuesday to thank the people who bought a subscription to save the long-time publication from going under.
“Dear friends who don’t know Greek, today we are celebrating the 86th birthday of our newspaper,” the article read. “If it weren’t for you, it would have been a day of grief. Your sensitivity made us so sentimental that we don’t know how to pay back this spiritual debt. You protected your cultural heritage.”
The four-page Greek-language daily faced closure due to financial problems that had been further aggravated by the economic crisis in Greece. The journal’s offices in Istanbul’s Taksim neighborhood had already been shut down, while the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, reporter and designer, Mihalis Vasiliadis, was preparing the journal with limited resources from his home.
But an online campaign titled “Don’t let Apoyevmatini shut down” produced positive results, reaching more than 9,000 people and saving the newspaper from shutting down.
More details here and here. Apoyevmatini's editor was interviewed for a previous Eurasianet story, about the status of minorities in Turkey, which can be found here.
Sign up for Eurasianet's free weekly newsletter. Support Eurasianet: Help keep our journalism open to all, and influenced by none.