Abdülhamit Bilici

Abdülhamit Bilici (born 1970 in Istanbul) is a Turkish journalist and media executive. Bilici was once one of the prominent and influential media figures in Turkey, as the last editor-in-chief of Zaman, the country’s most widely circulated newspaper and the CEO of the Feza Publications which ranked 244th among top 500 companies according to Istanbul Chamber of Industry's ISO500. Prior to that, he was the general director of Cihan News Agency, once the nation’s second largest news agency and also columnist of both Zaman daily and its English-language version, Today's Zaman. Bilici's newspapers were taken over by Erdogan government with a brutal raid on March 5, 2016 and the Feza Media Group was shutdown after July 15, failed coup attempt. In these circumstances, he was forced into exile under the threat of an arrest warrant.
Bilici is an expert on Turkish politics and continues his journalism career by writing freelance articles for various media outlets, lectures at different universities and speaks at conferences related to press freedom and Turkey's domestic and foreign policy. Recently, He has spoken in conferences in more than 20 states in America and is a frequent commentator on television channels such as BBC, CBS, Al Jazeera, and Sky News, among others.
He speaks English. Bilici is married and has two children.
Early life
Bilici attending primary school education in İstanbul and graduated from high school in Erzurum. He read for a BA in Political Sciences and International Relations Department at Bosporus University in 1993. He obtained a master's degree from Department of Economics at Istanbul University with a thesis titled “Energy Structure of Turkmenistan and Natural Gas”. He is currently a doctoral student at Department of International Relations at the same university. Bilici also has MBA degree from Faculty of Management at Fatih University.
Career
Starting his career at Zaman as a correspondent, Bilici worked as an editor at Aksiyon. between 1995–1997, as foreign news editor at Zaman between 1998–2001, as general editor at Zaman Daily between 2002–2008 and as general director of Cihan News Agency and as the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Zaman Newspaper. He is a columnist for Zaman and Today's Zaman dailies. He writes mainly on Turkish foreign policy and world politics. He is a frequent speaker on local and international television programs. Bilici is the editor of the book "Why Turkey?", which features different perspectives on Turkey-European Union relations.
Bibliography
Bilici edited a book titled “Why Turkey?” which combines different perspectives on Turkey-EU relations from both sides.
Bilici is a member of the Turkish Journalists Association (TGC), Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) and World Association of Newspapers (WAN).
Some of his published articles
How corruption destroys a democracy: The case of Turkey under Erdogan
Turkey, a U.S. ally, muzzles the media
« En s’en prenant à mon journal ’Zaman’, Erdogan plonge le pays dans la psychose »
Bilici: Turkey's Erdogan shows why we must care about press freedom
Abdulhamit Bilici: how Turkey lost its largest newspaper
Genes of Turkish media, clichés of the West
Dutch daily Volkskrant interview Bilici on tension in Turkish politics:
What if Soma disaster had been in South Korea?
Turkey's two new impasses
Normalization with Armenian surrealism?
Is Turkey detaching itself or is the West excluding it?
What is the military's place?
Some of his columns published at Zaman Daily
Soma, Güney Kore’de olsaydı!
Şimdi Hasan Cemal de New York Times da kötü oldu!
Dış politika karnesi!
Some of TV programs he attended
Al Jazeera English: Inside Story – Syria's civil war
BBC Newsnight: ‘It was a tragic day for media’: Former Zaman editor
CBS Interview: Forging an Islamic democracy
Habertürk 13 Mart 2014 – Abdülhamit Bilici
7 Mart 2014 CNN TURK – KARŞI GÜNDEM – Abdülhamit Bilici
13 Mart Bugun TV Güne Bakiş Abdülhamit Bilici
23 Aralık 2013 Sky News Sky News Abdülhamit Bilici
SamanyoluHaber Abdulhamit Bilici −03 Nisan 2014 – Yerel seçim sonrası Köşk seçim seneryoları
Syria's civil war?
CNN TURK, Cihan Haber Ajansı 2014 seçim çalışmaları
References
External links
Cihan Haber Ajansı Resmi Web Sitesi
Abdülhamit Bilici on Facebook (Turkish Account)
Abdülhamit Bilici on Twitter (Turkish Account)
Living people
Journalists from Istanbul
1970 births
People from Erzurum
Boğaziçi University alumni
Istanbul University alumni