Tijen Karaş

Tijen Karaş — Biography

Tijen Karaş spent her career as a Turkish television news presenter and journalist at the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT). She appeared for many years in music, arts-and-culture and news programmes, and her live broadcast on the night of 15 July 2016 made her name known well beyond Turkey.

While studying sociology at Hacettepe University's Faculty of Letters, she began presenting on TRT International's Avrasya channel, and she also edited the column "Sanat ve Politika" for the Turkish News Agency. In 1995 she presented the arts and culture programme Günce on C TV, then took part in live music programmes on TRT. Her programmes include Mehmetçikle El Ele, Bayram Özel, Sayısal Gece, Müzik Koridoru and Gençlik ve Yaşam. From 2005 she presented the weekend programme Haber Vizi for five years, and she worked as a news presenter at TRT Haber. She returned to the screen on 6 January 2020 with the programme Dünya Gündemi.

On the night of 15 July 2016, soldiers taking part in the coup attempt entered the TRT building in Ankara and forced Karaş, at gunpoint, to read their statement live on air. She later stated publicly that she had read the statement at gunpoint, and in 2019 she spoke about that night again. The broadcast made her widely known.