Avrupa Gazete (European Gazette) is a Turkish-language weekly broadsheet newspaper based in London, serving the Turkish-speaking community of Hackney and beyond. Describing itself with the Turkish tagline "Hayatın Tüm Renklerini Barındıran Gazete" — the newspaper containing all the colours of life — it publishes news from Turkey, Britain and Europe alongside community affairs, business, sport and classified advertising.
A Hackney Institution
Avrupa Gazete is rooted in Hackney, the north London borough that has long been one of the principal centres of Turkish-speaking settlement in Britain. Alongside Enfield and Islington, Hackney is one of the boroughs with the largest Turkish populations in the country; in all three, Turkish is the second most commonly spoken language after English. The paper's offices and distribution networks grew out of this community, and its journalism has always been oriented first toward the daily lives of Turkish Londoners.
The paper's close identification with the borough was recognised in 2009, when Avrupa Gazete won Best Ethnic Minority Business at the Mayor of Hackney's Business Awards. The award citation described it as "a weekly broadsheet newspaper which provides a vital link between Hackney's Turkish community and their local area" — an official acknowledgement of the role the Turkish-language press plays in the civic life of the borough.
Founding and Early Years
The paper's web domain, avrupagazete.com, was registered in February 2002, indicating an online presence dating back to the early years of the century, and its print history extends further. By the early 2010s the paper was producing regular print editions distributed through Turkish shops, cafés, restaurants and community centres across London, with digital editions of its weekly issues also published — examples from 2013 survive in digital archives, showing a full broadsheet format with Turkish-language news, features and advertising.
Content and Coverage
As a general-interest Turkish-language newspaper, Avrupa Gazete covers Turkish domestic politics and current affairs, news from the Turkish diaspora across Europe — reflected in its name, "European Gazette" — and British local news relevant to its readers. Sport is a major draw, with extensive coverage of the Turkish football giants Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray, Beşiktaş and Trabzonspor, whose matches are followed passionately by Turkish communities in London.
The paper also carries business and economic news aimed at the Turkish commercial community, classified advertisements, a business directory, and community announcements. Its keyword profile — spanning Turkish news, London Turks, European Turks, Turkish business, immigration and football — reflects the breadth of its service to readers whose lives span two countries.
The London Turkish Press
Avrupa Gazete is part of a competitive and longstanding Turkish-language press in London. Its rivals and counterparts include the London Turkish Gazette (Londra Gazete), a bilingual Turkish-English weekly founded in 2001 and published on Thursdays with a claimed circulation of 39,000, and Olay Gazetesi, a twice-weekly Turkish newspaper that bills itself as Britain's biggest Turkish newspaper. Together these titles serve a community estimated in the hundreds of thousands across London and the UK.
The Turkish press in Britain has deep roots: Turkish Cypriots began arriving in significant numbers in the 1950s, followed by mainland Turkish migrants from the 1970s onwards, many settling in north and east London. Community newspapers were among the first institutions these migrants built, providing news from home, practical information about life in Britain, and a forum for community debate.
Serving the Diaspora
For many Turkish-speaking Londoners, particularly older first-generation migrants, newspapers like Avrupa Gazete remain a primary source of news and information. The paper reports in Turkish on British affairs — immigration rules, housing, education, local council decisions — that directly affect its readers, translating the complexities of British public life into the community's own language. It also keeps readers connected to Turkey: its politics, economy, culture and football.
This dual orientation — toward both the homeland and the adopted home — is characteristic of the diaspora press, and it is the reason titles like Avrupa Gazete have endured while many English-language local papers have declined.
Business and Community Advertising
Like other community newspapers, Avrupa Gazete is sustained by advertising from Turkish-owned businesses: restaurants and kebab houses, supermarkets, jewellers, estate agents, solicitors, accountants, travel agents and money transfer services. Its classified and business directory sections function as a commercial infrastructure for the Turkish economy of north London, connecting businesses with customers in their own language.
The paper's recognition at the Hackney Business Awards underscored this economic role: it was honoured not merely as a newspaper but as a business embedded in the borough's commercial and community life.
Digital Presence
Avrupa Gazete maintains an active online edition at avrupagazete.com, publishing Turkish-language news with a focus on breaking stories from Turkey and the Turkish diaspora. The website extends the paper's reach beyond London to Turkish readers across Europe, consistent with the pan-European ambition implied by its name. Social media channels carry its stories to younger readers who may not pick up the print edition.
The Turkish Community of Hackney
Hackney's Turkish-speaking community took shape through successive waves of migration. Turkish Cypriots began arriving in significant numbers in the 1950s, followed from the 1970s by migrants from mainland Turkey, many of whom found work in the textile and catering trades, and later by Kurdish refugees. They settled above all in north London — Hackney, Haringey, Enfield and Islington — building a dense network of shops, restaurants, cafés, mosques, community centres and, crucially, newspapers. Academic research on the community has documented how Turkish came to be the second most commonly spoken language after English in Hackney, Enfield and Islington, underlining the scale of the readership that papers like Avrupa Gazete serve.
For this community, the Turkish-language press has always been more than a source of news: it is an institution of settlement, helping each new arrival navigate British life while maintaining a living connection to Turkey.
Print Editions Through the Years
Avrupa Gazete's print history is documented in surviving editions stretching back years — digital facsimiles of its 2013 weekly issues, for instance, show the paper in full broadsheet format, with Turkish-language news, features, sport and advertising laid out across its pages. The broadsheet format itself is a statement of seriousness: at a time when many community papers opted for compact tabloid formats, Avrupa Gazete presented itself as a full-size newspaper of record for the Turkish-speaking public.
Distribution followed the geography of the community: Turkish supermarkets, kebab houses and cafés, barbers and jewellers, community centres and mosques across Hackney and neighbouring boroughs, with copies also reaching Turkish businesses and readers further afield.
Rivalry in the Turkish Press
London's Turkish-language press is a competitive arena, and Avrupa Gazete has long contended with ambitious rivals. The London Turkish Gazette (Londra Gazete), founded in 2001 as a bilingual Turkish-English weekly published on Thursdays, claims a circulation of 39,000 and describes itself as the voice of London's Turkish-speaking communities. Olay Gazetesi, publishing twice weekly, bills itself as Britain's biggest Turkish newspaper. Each title competes for the same readers and advertisers, and for the prestige of being the community's paper of record.
Within this rivalry, Avrupa Gazete's 2009 Hackney Business Award stands as a distinctive mark of civic recognition — an honour bestowed not by the community alone but by the borough itself.
Avrupa Gazete Today
In a media environment where many local newspapers have closed, Avrupa Gazete continues to serve one of London's most established migrant communities in its own language. From its Hackney base it provides the Turkish-speaking public with news, sport, business information and community connection — a vital link, as the borough itself recognised, between the community and the city it calls home.
