Nöbetçi Eczaneler
Can we get to know you?
As a journalist, being on the other side of an interview this time feels both unusual and delightful. I was born in Ankara, where my entire education and career journey took shape. I am the daughter of a mother who worked for many years as a TV producer at TRT. I believe broadcasting entered our family’s bloodstream from an early age.
As a child, I often accompanied my mother to TRT’s Foreign Broadcasting Department in Ankara. I grew up watching tapes being carried from room to room, hearing the sound of typewriters, sensing the distinctive silence of studios, and witnessing the excitement created by visiting public figures. Looking back today, I realize that I quietly decided to become a publisher in those very years, though only now, speaking with you, I am expressing it this clearly for the first time.
Can you tell us about your educational background?
I graduated from Hacettepe University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Public Finance. However, I never practiced that profession. My career began in a completely different place, advertising and public relations.
At the time, the printing house we worked with was producing a long-established Defence & Aviation magazine. One day, almost instinctively, I said, “I wish we had a regularly published magazine of our own.” It was an unplanned, spontaneous sentence but words truly have power. Soon, doors began opening, and I found myself becoming a publisher in the defense and aviation world.
Where do you stand in aviation media today?
For more than 20 years, I have served as the publisher and editor-in-chief of Aviation Turkey and Defence Turkey magazines. In the early years, my focus was primarily on military aviation. I visited aircraft manufacturing facilities around the world, interviewed top executives, wrote articles, and actively participated in international aviation and defense events.
Our Defence Turkey magazine is the only media partner from Türkiye officially selected by the Paris Air Show organization, an event with over a century of history and the world’s largest gathering of aviation companies. Seeing our logo alongside publications like The New York Times and Le Monde is a pride beyond words.
When did you step into civil aviation?
Then I discovered where my heart truly belonged: commercial aviation. With this passion, I founded Aviation Turkey magazine and opened an entirely new chapter in my life. The first time I boarded an aircraft, at the moment I met the sky, I said to myself: “This is my home.”
This year alone, I have taken 102 flights, eight of them long-haul. Every time I rise into the sky, I feel as if I am returning home. My mind clears, my thoughts flow freely, and I feel closer to myself and the universe. I have realized that many of my biggest life decisions, brightest ideas, and newest projects were born while flying. Can someone be happy on every flight? Yes, absolutely.
Today, our magazines reach more than 40,000 aviation and tourism professionals across 72 countries.
When I first launched Aviation Turkey, I visited Güliz Öztürk, today Pegasus Airlines’ CEO. After listening to my publishing vision, she said, “Then welcome among us.” That sentence was my greeting to an entire world, a world of aviation, discovery, and boundless horizons. Some people and some sentences enter our lives for a reason.
Throughout my life, I have stayed in dialogue with the greater system we live in, following signs, listening carefully, and trying to see truth in small details. The smallest words opened large doors; difficulties revealed new paths. I work with my heart. My mind and experience simply light the way.
Can you tell us about your travels?
Sometimes, standing in the middle of an airport with my suitcase, I ask myself: “What am I really doing in these global crossroads where millions pass every day?”
Just like aircraft and airports connect people and places, I connect experiences, destinations, and stories. In my writing about flight experiences and destinations, I merge my unique inner voice with what I live through, delivering those experiences from my pen to my readers.
What would you like to see in the future of women in aviation?
I sincerely thank Aviationext and my colleague Emre Nar for creating this space for women in aviation and for giving me a place in it.
I deeply value women’s leadership and contributions in professional life. When we combine the colors women bring, diversity, compassion, empathy, with personal growth and inner strength, we don’t just produce successful work; we inspire others, sometimes even give hope.
I truly believe that under our compassionate yet powerful wings, we can create space for others to rise, too.
Together, we are truly remarkable.