Turkish Cypriot journalist of international repute. Akpinar was keen that the world should not forget the oppression of the Turkish Cypriots at the hands of the Greek Cypriots that led to Turkey's 1974 armed intervention, which in turn led to the division of the island into a Greek Cypriot south and Turkish Cypriot north. He championed continued across-the-border contacts between north and south in an effort to rebuild good relations. Following Britain's 1960 handover of the Island's sovereignty, Akpinar began his lifelong journalistic career, in 1961, in the press section of the Turkish Embassy. He established, in 1985, the independent North Cyprus News Agency, which published in English News from the North. He also reported for the BBC's Turkish Service and Reuters. Akpinar became managing director and editor-in-chief, in 1989, of the new Turkish language daily Kibris ('Cyprus'), which remains the north's leading newspaper; and its companion English-language weekly Cyprus Times, which, after a brief closure, was re-launched the following year as Cyprus Today. Mehmet Ali Akpinar was buried at his family village of Pinarbasi, north of Nicosia, where he was born.