Emin Çölaşan


Emin Çölaşan is a Turkish investigative journalist, whose daily column appeared in the mass-circulation newspaper, Istanbul-based Hürriyet, for 22 years, from 1985 to 2007,. Since 2007, he continues his column in Sözcü.

Family background

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 grandfather who was exiled by Sultan Abdülhamid II deep into the Fizan desert interior of Libya for 7 years because of JeuneTurc movement. His maternal grandfather, Refik Şevket İnce, born in Polichnitos near Mytilene, 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 where he was a general director for 14 years, one of the longest. Çölaşan and his wife Tansel, who held the position of chief advocate for the Turkish Council of State, is now president of . He has no children.

Education and career

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.

Controversies

Çölaşan had been a critic of Turgut Özal, Turkey's Prime Minister from 1983 to 1989, who became the target of his 1980s bestseller books Turgut'un Serüveni ' and Turgut Nereden Koşuyor? '. Çölaşan also criticized the incumbent AKP government, which is known to be the reason behind his 13 August 2007 firing from Hürriyet after 22 years of service.
A strong and passionate nationalist, Çölaşan has criticized the government's plans regarding the Kurdish problem. Emin Çölaşan is a secularist, has accused the AKP government for Islamism.
His books published: