SULTAN YAVUZ- Implemented by the Association of Journalists and funded by the European Union, “Media for Democracy/Democracy for Media” (M4D) Project hosted Tanter Dedoğlu at the Press House. In his presentation titled “Interview Techniques” Dedeoğlu talked about the intricacies of how to interview while citing his recently published book “Şimdi Onlar Manşet” (Now They’re Making Headlines). Before Dedeoğlu’s presentation, Association of Journalists Chairman Nazmi Bilgin remarked that this book is very important to him, and remarked:
“It was a difficult time for 24 Saat newspaper, we were struggling to publish announcements. They told [sic] we should publish special news, interviews etc, and we were told we didn’t have enough columnists. Those days, thankfully, we talked with Taner Dedeoğlı and wanted to create a book documenting interviews with leading figures in journalism. I believe Dedeoğlu was the best person for the job, as you all well know. He has done some exceptional work in the past, worked for big newspapers and is a respected name in journalistic circles… He can be a bit grumpy but I turst that’s due to his professional experience and integrity. We’ve come to accept him as such and love him for it.
Experience is very important, but it’s only valid if it’s shared. You need to share your experiences, no matter who you are, famous or not… It’s easy being famous but what’s important in journalism is being trustworthy. I’ve met quite a few famous people, some long forgotten. The late football player Metin Oktay was a good friend of mine, alongside football he was also a man of philosophy. One day we were chatting at the Ankara Hotel, he said ‘Nazmi, do you know what the three most difficult things to carry are? Fame, money and a gun. You could carry a gun for 20 years and nothing would happen but one day it could change everything. Money is the same, you work for it, end up swimming in it but you make one mistake and it’s all gone. Fame… everyone could love you but make one big mistake and it’s over. That’s why it’s difficult to carry fame’.
Taner Dedeoğlu, having worked for so many years preserves his fame through beautiful works such as his new book. I had the opportunity to read it both before and after it was printed. He not only shared his experience and successes in interviews with us, but he has left an important mark on our near political history. I’ve read the book many times and found something new in its each time. Dedeoğlu could have said ‘I’ve done my job, I’m retired and now I can enjoy myself’ but he worked on his book for years.
We sometimes do not appreciate these things enough. It is important to appreciate people while they’re alive, we need more appreciation. I hope Taner sees that I’m complimenting him, I’d like to thank him very much for what the interviews he has done in his field and for providing the Association of Journalists with such a wonderful book.”

Dedeoğlu “Then the 28 February incident happened”
Providing the audience with biographical information about Dedeoğlu, M4D Project Assistant Director Seva Ülman said “Our guest Taner Dedeoğlu has conducted hundreds of interviews, and believe me he has done a great job in doing so”. Ülman remarked that in addition to technical knowledge, being able to properly to get to know the person you are interviewing is very important in interviews and Dedeoğlu hask peaked in this skill over the years.
Starting his presentation by talking about his professional life Dedeoğlu said he was born in in Nevşehir in 1949, nine months prior to the transition to the multi-party system. When at primary school in Nevşehir, just before entering the end of school exams his teacher told him and his fellow students “Go home, do not leave your homes” -the date was 27 May 1960, a military coup had happened. Later, Dedeoğlu attended Ankara University where there were mass protests, the army had taken over by issuing a letter, Dedeoğlu said “the coup of 12 March 1971… That’s when I started the profession. I must commemorate the late Asaf Uçar… Orhan Tokatlı had told him there were high ranking military officials at TRT and told him to take pictures of them, but when Uçar arrived at the premises he was not allowed into the general manager’s office. Then, Uçar saw the military caps of the Black Sea Air-force  and Commandership of Gendarmerie sitting on the table of the private secretary; he took pictures of them and sent them in to the paper. When I first started working I asked Asaf ‘So how did you take the picture?’ he replied ‘I just did’.”
Dedeoğlu told the audience he worked for Milliyet newspaper, then Hey magazine, Hurriyet Newspaper, 7 Gün magazine; he also remarked that he experienced the 12 September 1980 coup as a journalist. Dedeoğlu later worked for Millyet newspaper’s supplement “Renk” where he started doing interviews, but when his contract had expired he decided to retire on the account of his wife’s foreign mission. Dedeoğlu said:
“I sent in my petition for retirement, they started the process and then suddenly 28 February incidents happened, the Turkish army sent its tanks through the streets of Sincan. So, looking back I can say that my career started with a coup and ended with one. When I returned from abroad I started a magazine for the Foreign Trade Foundation. I continued interviewing for the Ankara Chamber of Industry ASO Medya magazine. In 2009, with the kind invitation of Mr. Chairman and late Vice Chairman Kemal Karacehennem I found myself instated in this position.”

Interviews with Gazanfer Kunt and Cüneyt Arcayürek
Dedeoğlu drew attention to the Latin roots of the word “interview” and remarked that how its meaning encompasses many things such as things or someone that grabs our attention, a place, incident, or artwork; while news articles are short and objective, in interviews a subject is approached from many different perspectives giving place to the interviewer’s own interpretation and commentary. Explaining that interviews are generally held and the house of the person being interviewed, Dedeoğlu said “this is because the person may show you documents, or such things as photographs”. Underlining the importance of preparing for the interview, Dedeoğlu remarked that it is important to pay attention to dress appropriately and the rules of societal life are also important in interviews. Emphasizing the importance of arriving on time for the interview Dedeloğlu gave the example of his interview with Cüneyt Arcayürek. Dedeoğlu said:
“When we first started out this endeavour with the late Kemal Karacehennem, the first name they gave us was Gazanfer Kunt, whom I did not know at the time. Kunt, decided to move to Bodrum in 1960 from Ankara where he was the owner of a newspaper; after travelling around the coast he finally decided to settle down in Torba and built his first house there. He was 90 years old when I interviewed him, he showed me pictures of Cünyet Arcayürek from 1951. While I was scanning that photo in Ankara, I made an extra copy because I wanted to interview Cüneyt Arcayürek. Cünyet Arcayürek would speak in a loud voice, he was quite temperamental, we worked together in Hürriyet and Milliyet but you could expect anything from him at any time.
So, I took the photograph with me to Cumhuriyet newspaper’s Ankara bureau; the secretary told me I could leave the picture there but I waited for his in case he had any questions. Half an hour later the secretary came back with the picture and I heard a booming voice shout ‘Who?  What? What did they want?’ so I slid through the half-open door. I told him about everything, I had already left a note with the secretary and it had been quite some time. When Mr. Chairman bumped into Arcayürek on 29 October 2009 he told him ‘Let’s do an interview, we’re making book’. So, Mr. Chairman had decided upon the subject when I did my first interview. 

10 years went by, it became a book…
A while later I bumped into him with his wife at Panora. After saying hello, he said ‘call my secretary tomorrow’, I did and set off for his house. If I’m going somewhere, I don’t know, I arrive there 20 minutes before I need to be there, and 5 minutes before if I know where I’m going. Just as I pressed the doorbell, I got a call, it was the secretary saying that Mr. Arcayürek wanted to do the interview another time but through the intercom I said ‘Mr. Arcayürek, it’s me’ and he buzzed me in. So, you see it’s quite important to be there on time; if I had said ‘oh, I’m just on Turan Güneş boulevard’ the interview would never have happened.”
Politeness and the example of Mete Akyol
Dedeoğlu stated that interview questions must be short and precise, they should not be interrogative, but must be polite and seek out knowledge. Dedeoğlu shared a memory of Mete Akyol, a master of the art of the interview:
“The Özal family were in bit of a predicament. Their children seemed to have been involved in everything. When Özal died, a journalist uncovered Özal’s daughter Zeynep Özal’s bank statements in Switzerland, this caused havoc. Mete Akyol and Reha Muhtar were requested to interview the family. Mete Akyol said it would only be him conducting the interview, everybody was very excited but the public was furious with Mete Akyol afterwards. He regretted it, but he was polite as he ever was; just wanted to get more information. The public, though, really wanted to get at him. That is why there was a lot of criticism such as ‘you were too polite’. When you are conducting an interview, it is really unnecessary to be rude and impolite.”
Masters of the interview
Dedeoğlu said it is important to give a brief overview of the topic in the first person when writing the interview. Interviews that are supported with visual material can be considered in terms of a documentary according to Dedeoğlu:
“Interview techniques have changed in the last 30 years. Where are the introductions? What about telling the story? Ayşe Arman made it popular to just use quotations, we on the other hand actually turn it into a story.”
Remarking that interviews began in the 1950s and that there are many masters of the art, Dedeoğlu said: “Hikmet Feridun wrote about his experiences in Korea where he went with the Turkish army and turned his journals into a serial supported by photographs. Yaşar Kemal, Fikret Otyam, Mete Akyol and Eşref Kemal are other important names.”
White “doner”
In addition to telling the audience about his memories of the interviews he conducted Dedeoğlu also mentioned his experiences in the “Renk” supplement paper. He said:
“It was 1985, we were about to eat lunch at Sakarya. There were doner kebab shops with red meat on the skewers, but there was this one shop that had white meat on it. We asked ‘what’s this?’ and the chef said “chicken doner”. I told him I’d be back in a couple of hours, I grabbed my camera and came back. “Köşem Piknik” that was İrfan Usta… He had prepared some chicken doner since red meat had become expensive and chicken production began to increase. He first tried using the skin, then something else… When I did this interview Milliyet newspaper sold 230 thousand copies and nobody came out and said ‘I sell chicken doner too’.
I time a did a news piece about the former dean of Hacettepe University Faculty of Pharmacy; the dean had used the wooden furniture of a closed-down pharmacy shop and put it exactly in the entrence of the faculty. The news article was a hit, but then someone from Istanbul called and said ‘we’re here trying to save people, doing bone marrow transplants and instead of reporting about that you report about nonsense like this’. So I said ‘ok’ and went there. Really, I did a piece called ‘What’s happening in the health sector?’. This time Ege University called, they said they opened a new department in this field, a reporter friend from İzmir did that article. You see, it wasn’t like the chicken doner business…”