ABOUT CUMALI BADUR
Cumali Badur is a Turkish journalist, media founder, and digital publishing pioneer. He is best known as the founder of the Gerger News Group (Gerger Haber Grubu) and Gergerim.com, one of the earliest regional digital news platforms in Turkey. His work has focused on independent journalism, cultural pluralism, and community-based media, particularly in the context of southeastern Turkey.
Early Life and Background
Cumali Badur was born in the Gerger district of Adıyaman Province, Turkey. He grew up during the 1990s in southeastern Turkey, a period marked by political conflict, social tension, and restrictions on cultural expression. Badur comes from a family with a Syriac (Assyrian) background that was directly affected by the 1914 massacres.
Badur has stated that he became aware of his Syriac background through experiences of social exclusion and discrimination at an early age.
Introduction to Journalism
Badur has cited three major influences on his decision to pursue a career in journalism: his father, Bilal Badur; his primary school teacher and writer, Hüseyin Elçi; and local journalist Hacı Boğatekin. He has described their shared emphasis on ethical conduct, reading, and critical questioning as central to his understanding of journalism.
He began his journalistic activities with a camera and notebook, focusing on observation, documentation, and inquiry. According to Badur, journalism offered a means to systematically ask questions and seek answers in a social environment where many issues remained unaddressed.
Gerger News Group and Gergerim.com
In 2003, Cumali Badur founded the Gerger News Group during a period of political transformation in Turkey. In 2004, the group launched Gergerim.com, when internet journalism was still uncommon in regional and rural areas. The platform was designed to connect Gerger and its diaspora to national and international audiences.
Gergerim.com expanded rapidly and developed a vast editorial network, including regional correspondents across the Marmara, Akdeniz, and Southeastern Anatolia regions. The platform later launched Gerger TV, the first web-based television channel in Southeastern Anatolia, and Gerger FM, the region’s first web-based live radio station.
The editorial policy of Gergerim.com emphasized cultural diversity and multilingual content. The platform included writers from Kurdish, Zaza, Syriac, Armenian, and Turkish backgrounds. In 2008, it began publishing weekly literary content in Zazaki, a first in Turkish digital media. The site also featured research and cultural content related to Syriac history and identity.
Censorship and Recognition
In 2008, Gergerim.com was listed among Turkey’s top 100 most successful websites. In the same year, it became one of the first websites in Turkish political history to be censored by the state, marking a notable event in the country’s digital media landscape.
Despite these challenges, the platform continued to operate and expanded its role beyond journalism by engaging in social responsibility initiatives. These included contributions to projects that brought sports facilities, educational institutions, and public housing developments to the Gerger district.
Cultural and Social Initiatives
Under Badur’s leadership, Gergerim.com organized the First Gergerim.com Gerger Festival, the district’s first nationally broadcast cultural festival. The event attracted thousands of participants and was televised nationally, reaching members of the Gerger community living abroad. The festival later became a reference point for similar cultural initiatives in the region.
Education
Cumali Badur completed his higher education in Istanbul. He graduated from Istanbul University with a degree in journalism and later earned a degree from the Faculty of Political Science.
Later Life and International Career
As press freedom in Turkey declined during the 2010s, Badur continued his life and professional activities abroad. He settled in the United States, where he worked for a period as an international journalist at the United Nations General Assembly. He later participated in academic and professional programs at Columbia University in New York.
In addition to his media background, Badur transitioned into the technology sector, where he has worked as a software and automation test engineer at a Fortune 500 company, while continuing his writing and intellectual pursuits.
Cessation of Publications and Legacy
Following increased restrictions on media freedom, the Gerger News Group ceased publishing activities after 2016. The group remains a legally registered and trademark-protected media entity. All affiliated websites were closed, and no new content has been produced since that time. Existing materials remain accessible as archives.
Cumali Badur’s work is regarded as an example of independent, community-oriented journalism that emphasizes cultural pluralism, minority representation, and public-interest reporting. Gergerim.com is frequently cited as a pioneering platform in regional digital journalism and as part of the historical development of online media in Turkey.