Turkey: Anadolu Agency Annual Editors' Meeting begins

By Can Erozden

ANKARA (AA) - Anadolu Agency Annual Editors' Meeting kicked off at the headquarters in capital Ankara on Monday.

Anadolu Agency Director General Senol Kazanci and the agency's foreign languages and international news editors met as part of this meeting.

In his opening speech, Kazanci said the meeting aims to evaluate the progress of the foreign languages and international news departments and take steps to strengthen Anadolu Agency's global vision.

Kazanci said Anadolu Agency reaches out to almost the entire world with its 13 languages, including Turkish, Arabic, English, Russian, Albanian, Macedonian, Indonesian, Spanish, the Kurdish dialects of Kurmanji and Sorani, French, Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BHS) and Persian.

He added that Anadolu Agency is the best in Turkey, and aims to become the best in the world.

"We followed Operation Olive Branch. We supplied news to the whole world. Perhaps (on this topic) we were number one in the world," Kazanci said.

Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch on Jan. 20 to clear YPG/PKK and Daesh terrorist groups from Afrin in northwestern Syria amid growing threats from the region.

On March 18, Turkish-backed troops liberated Afrin town center, which had been a major hideout for the YPG/PKK since 2012.

Aydin Unal, the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party deputy in Ankara and NATO Parliamentary Assembly's Turkish group member, was a guest at the meeting.

In his speech, Unal praised Anadolu Agency saying: "If you don't work for Anadolu Agency or any other institution as big as Anadolu Agency, you don't see yourself as a complete journalist."

Unal said prior to becoming a deputy in 2015, he was a journalist.

Speaking about the 2013 Gezi Park protests, he said the government has evidence they were orchestrated by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the same group responsible for the 2016 defeated coup, which left 250 martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

"The July 15 coup attempt was performed to stop Turkey's development and progress. Thank God we repelled it. But I don't think they will leave Turkey alone easily."

Shedding light on the conflict in Syria, Unal said Turkey is located in a tough geography but it struggles to build peace in the region.

He said Turkey is not after any country's oil, diamond or mines, but eyes only peace.

Syria has been locked in a devastating civil war since March 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

While UN officials say hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict, Syrian regime officials say the death toll is closer to 10,000.

The participants at the meeting were also shown a short documentary on Anadolu Agency's global vision.

The editors' meeting will conclude on April 21.

Approaching its 100th anniversary in 2020, Anadolu Agency -- the source for trusted news -- offers news, photographs and videos on Turkey, world, economy, sports, health and technology.

The agency has bureaus in 41 centers including the Pentagon, Washington, London, Moscow, Addis Ababa, Beirut, Berlin, Rome, Beijing, Indonesia and Colombia and has representatives in 97 countries.

Anadolu Agency produces 1,400 news stories, 2,300 photos, 400 videos daily from nearly every continent, which makes it a global news agency.