The guest on the program was Minas Vassiliadis, publisher and editor-in-chief of the historic Greek-language newspaper Apogevmatini of Istanbul. The occasion for this conversation was the paper’s centenary—100 years of uninterrupted publication.
“Apogevmatini is not just a newspaper. It is a mission,” Vassiliadis emphasized during the broadcast. Today, he is the paper’s sole employee. It was on 12 July 1925 that the Greek community of Istanbul first held a copy of Apoyevmatini in their hands. Along with the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, it remains one of the oldest still-running newspapers in Turkey. Within its pages is recorded the living history of the city’s Greek Orthodox community.
Notably, in the centennial edition, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew contributed a personal reflection as a longtime reader, titled “A Century of Apogevmatini.”
Despite the challenges, Minas Vassiliadis expressed his determination to keep the paper in circulation.
Photo of Minas Vassiliadis by Anna Montraveta Riu