Kaş Aydın Haber Ajansı http://kasaydinhaber.com/
Adem Aydın Publisher
We met Adem Aydın in his shop and he told us about his Turkish language newspaper the Kaş Aydın Haber. Adem Bey is a former football player and previously participated in oil wrestling (yağlı gureş). He is a big fan of the sport and every year goes to Elmalı to watch this event which has been continuously performed for 659 years! Some day he hopes to write a book about this sport but has not had the time so far.Adem Bey was born in Kaş Andifli on the 1st of April, 1962. He went to elementary, middle and high school in Kaş and then studied at Anadolu University in Ankara in the Social Sciences faculty. After his graduation he did two years of military service in Ankara. He returned to Kaş and took a position as an elementary school teacher where he remained for five years. He then took a job with the Kaş City offices (Belediye) and later became the Kaş Harbour Master. He worked in that position for over 25 years and is soon to take his retirement. He said the early days of being Harbour Master were difficult as they had no computers and all work had to be done by hand. He started forbidding cars to park directly on the harbour because of the events that occur there and also because of the para-gliders who need to have a decent place to land in Kaş. During his tenure as Harbour Master he developed a system where boats would not need to drop their anchors while in the harbour. He said it was sometimes difficult to untangle the anchors of boats and often the city had to send divers to uncouple the anchor chains. He planned and put into place a system of cable and five ton concrete blocks to which boats could tie up. He told us that with this system up to 5-40 meter boats can dock in the harbour. Adem Bey said that they estimate around 10,000 boats come to Kaş annually.
Mustafa Akboğa and his typesetter
While we were visiting the Haber offices, Mustafa Akboğa was printing a run of documents on their typesetter. The machine is quite interesting to watch while it is working under the careful hands of Mustafa Bey. You are invited to take a moment and stop by their offices and introduce yourself and buy a paper. If you are interested in reporting news of Kaş and surrounding villages please tell Adem Bey of your interest. He does speak some English and would be very interested in meeting you.
Adem Bey first started writing in 1999 and that was when he had his dream of some day starting a newspaper. During these years he also pursued photography and coupled his photo taking with his writing. He has written a lot of stories and news articles for Anadolu Haber Ajansı, İhlas Haber Ajansı and Batı Antalya Kumluca as a free lance writer.
His biggest story was about African and Iraqi refugees attempting to move through Turkey to Europe. There was a group of 23 people who paid over $2000 USD to smugglers to take them by a small fishing boat to Meis from Kaş. The sea was rough and the boat capsized and all the occupants drowned. The Coast Guard retrieved the bodies and brought them to the Kaş Harbour. As Harbour Master he was allowed to be present when they were brought in and as a reporter he took photos of the people who drowned. He noted the identity papers of the victims and wrote a story about them with their names and sent the story to Anadolu Ajansı. The story quickly went international and two relatives of the deceased; one in the UK and one in Germany recognized their relatives and came to Kaş. The bodies were buried and the relatives got permission to return their family members to the UK and Germany. These family members met with the Mayor of Kaş and Adem Bey and expressed their gratitude for posting the story.
Kaş Aydın Haber office entrance
Adem Bey likes his work very much. He alone decides what goes into his paper and has a great group who help him put out this weekly paper. The paper is still waiting for permission from the central government for official status as a newspaper. When that happens he will be able to publish official notices from the government for which papers are paid. It will also mean he will have finally lived his dream. He likes to write about people and events in and around Kaş that no one else writes about such as village life and cultural events that are not always well known. One article was about old stone houses and another about a local flower vendor.
The paper was started on October 22, 2010 and as of July 27, there have been 39 weekly editions printed. Their first edition they printed 1000 copies, since then they print an average of 500 papers every week.The paper is printed every Friday and individual copies are 1 TL. An annual Kaş subscription is 50 TL which they will send out to your postal address. If you live in another city a subscription costs 75 TL. Aydın Haber not only puts out the newspaper but they also print flyers, calendars and they print and distribute the Ramazan table of morning (sahur) and evening (iftar) meal times. This document is called İmsakiye.
Collator machine Aydın Haber
There are three large machines in their rather tiny space next to the “new” mosque nearly at the top of the hill on Yeni Cami Caddesi. They have a German Heidelberg Einfarben typesetting machine which dates from 1978 and which they found in Istanbul. They also have an industrial strength paper cutter, and a collator which prints page numbers and binds pages together. For example he showed us an invoice (fatura) book used by businesses which are required by law to keep track of the numbers on the invoices they submit. His business is many faceted.
Adem Bey eventually wants to print a monthly magazine in both English and Turkish. Since there are many expats and foreign tourists who live in or visit Kaş every year, he believes there would be a demand for such a publication. He hopes he can get input and ideas from the community at large about their ideas and thoughts, their likes and dislikes, and their views on religion and politics. Please give Aydın Haber your support.
Kaş Aydın Haber
Tel and Faks: 0242 836 3175
Gsm: 0532 257 7534
E-Posta: kasaydinhaber@hotmail.com
Adres: Andifli Mah. Yeni Cami Cad. Antik Tiyatro Sok. Boşgelmez Apt. Kat 1 – Kaş
Adem Aydın
İmtiyaz Sahibi (Publisher)
Esra Özdemir
Sorumlu Yazı İşleri Müdürü (Editor)
Emrah Çetin
Muhabir (Reporter)
Mustafa Akboğa
Grafik-Tasarım (Graphic Design)
Feyyaz Ustaer
Web Tasarım (Web Design)
