Voices Newspaper has been at the forefront of the English-language media on Turkish Aegean and Mediterranean for nearly 20 years. It is now one of the most respected newspapers covering Didim, Aydin Province, and the rest of Turkey.
Voices, the sister company of Realty World real estate agency, has forged a reputation for breaking news that affects the local Turkish and foreign communities.
Former TV reporter and cameraman Hasan Bayrak launched Voices Newspaper in 2005, and remains its CEO and Editor in Chief.
Married and having lived in Didim for 37 years, he graduated from Eastern Mediterranean University, Department of Radio, Television and Cinema, where he studied with a scholarship in 2002. He has advanced written and speaking skills in English.
Voices expanded into Bodrum for nearly two years in the 2010s as demand for its newsgathering services increased. Hasan also worked as a reporter for Doğan News Agency from 2005-2010.
During this period, he also sent news from the region to British newspapers and broadcasting organizations such as the Daily Mirror, Sun and BBC.
Between those dates, he was responsible for one of the first real estate and lifestyle magazines in Turkey called “Turkish Property Magazine”. It was published in the summer months and distributed in England through its CMYK advertising agency.
CMYK has prepared regional promotion guides, hotel and restaurant guides and promotional catalogues of hundreds of companies. In 2009, it published the weekly political newspaper called Mavi Posta. Since 2010, all media activities have been focused on Voices.
Voices journalist Ruken Alışkan, born in Izmir in 1994, first worked part-time at Voices Newspaper in 2012. She completed her education at Kocaeli University, Faculty of Communication, Department of Journalism in 2016.
After university, she studied language in England for one year before completing her master’s in Media Studies at Izmir Katip Çelebi University in 2022. She completed her thesis in the field of “Data Journalism”. During her master’s degree, she worked as a research assistant in the TÜBİTAK Project and then, in 2022, returned to Voices as a full-time reporter.
Deniz Bayrak, born in Aydın in 1999, has been a photojournalist and videographer at Voices since October 2023. He completed his high school education at Didim Sinav College in 2017 before graduating from Dokuz Eylül University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Photography in 2023. He continues his formation training at the same university.
During his university years, he completed his practical internships at Didim Foto Vizyon and Didim Foto Didyma. In his graduation thesis titled “The Mystery of the Temple”, he prepared a photography portfolio of the Temple of Apollo using the “long exposure” technique.
Andy Probert has been a long-time resident of Turkey, offering his media skills in developing Voices for several years. His career included experience in regional daily newspapers, and freelancing for UK nationals. He remains Voices Editor.