Aydın Doğan addresses President Erdoğan in letter

Aydın Doğan, the founder and honorary chairman of Doğan Holding, has stated in an open letter addressing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that he never claimed the media can replace governments.

“I have never uttered such a remark or said anything with a similar meaning to any elected leader or state official throughout my life,” Doğan said in the letter published by daily Hürriyet, a Doğan Holding company, on Sept. 26.

Aydın Doğan said that coming from Kelkit in Anatolia, he is a man of his words just like Erdoğan, who comes from Kasımpaşa in Istanbul.

The letter referred to Erdoğan’s interview broadcast by Kanal 7 on Sept. 22, in which he quoted Doğan as saying during a meeting at an Istanbul hotel years ago that “there were times when we made governments come and go.”

“[In the program] you noted that I said these words to you, referring to late presidents Turgut Özal and Süleyman Demirel, as well as former Prime Minister Tansu Çiller,” Doğan said in the letter. “But in the meeting at Conrad Hotel, I did not tell you such a thing nor did I utter any remark with a similar meaning.”

The Doğan Holding honorary chairman also stressed that he felt the urge to write the letter “with the sadness that such unfairness has created.”

The letter quoted former President Demirel, who once wrote that he was never offended by criticism in Doğan media outlets because they were simply “doing their job properly as the press.”

“I am writing this letter to you only as a victimized citizen, because I have recently been under cruel and remorseless attacks by media outlets that support you,” the letter also said, stressing that Doğan Media is strongly against terrorism.