ANKARA
"Anadolu Agency is the voice of the victims and the oppressed across the world, as well as being a foundation that the Islamic world can be proud of," said The Anadolu Agency Director General Kemal Ozturk during a farewell address to the personnel on his last working day at the agency.
Ozturk has resigned his post, AA Board of Directors announced on Monday, praising his contributions to AA’s rise as a global news organization during his three-year leadership.
In a letter to AA personnel, Ozturk talked about the goals he had achieved at the head of the agency.
"There will be many rumors about my resigning, but believe me I did want to resign for my own working principles and did not do any simple mistake to harm our agency."
He became AA’s Director General in August 2011. Under his leadership, the agency opened a number of offices around the world and began broadcasting in eight languages as part of its centennial goals.
"When I took office on Aug. 2, 2011, I did not imagine that we could write such a brilliant story," he said. "We started out believing that we could be one of the top five agencies in the world."
Ozturk pointed out that The Anadolu Agency has become one of the 10 most effective agencies across the world. "What makes me more proud is that it is the children of this geography who achieved it."
He demanded that all the personnel, without any hesitation, should keep on working in harmony and solidarity to become the voice of Turkey.
"What is significant is that AA reaches its goals, and broadcasts the suffering of those in Gaza, Jerusalem, Aleppo, Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, and Myanmar without exception. I strongly believe that the agency's team will succeed," Ozturk said.
Pointing to the agency's centennial vision "to become one of the top five most influential news agencies in the world by 2020," Ozturk said, the vision would continue with the support of the government.
He also voiced his belief that the young generation of journalists educated in the agency's News Academy will be the best journalists of the future and will add great quality to the media industry.
"AA will have been one of the top five agencies in the world by 2020," Ozturk stressed, "And I will be there when the victory is announced."
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