Epress.am News from Armenia
Owner of the newspaper Van Times, Aziz Aykaç, 56, died on Saturday in the Turkish capital, Ankara, where he was being treated in hospital for 10 days prior to his death.
Aykaç worked as a journalist for over 30 years and was considered one of the oldest journalists in Van, coordinating the activities of the multilingual Van Times, which publishes news in four languages: Turkish, Kurdish, Persian and English.
It was upon his initiative last year that local residents hosted and provided accommodations to Armenians attending the Sept. 19 Divine Liturgy in Aghtamar’s Cathedral of the Holy Cross (Surb Khach) under the program “We open our doors to Armenians visiting Van.” In addition, Van Times published an Armenian supplement on this momentous occasion.
“He was a wonderful and very brave person. He was trying to build a bridge between Armenians and Turks. When everyone was skeptical about publishing an Armenian version of the publication [on the one occasion], he inspired us,” said Aris Nalci, managing editor of the Istanbul-based bilingual Armenian-Turkish weekly Agos, speaking to Epress.am.