About the 32.Day Archive

What 32.Day was

32.Gün (in English, 32.Day) was a current-affairs programme created and presented by the journalist Mehmet Ali Birand. It first aired on TRT 1 on 1 October 1985. Over the following decades it moved between Turkish channels, including TRT, Show TV, atv, CNN Türk and Kanal D, and it ran until 2016, becoming Turkey's longest-running news programme.

Its crews travelled to wherever the story was: the Iran–Iraq front, Baghdad before and after the Gulf War, Sarajevo under siege, Moscow as the Soviet Union ended, the camps of Northern Iraq and the Palestinian territories. At home they covered every election, coup anniversary and political crisis. Birand interviewed the people at the centre of events, among them Yasser Arafat, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, Abdullah Öcalan, Turgut Özal and Kenan Evren.

What the archive contains

The catalogue lists 26,617 tape segments: finished broadcast programmes, raw interview rushes, location footage and studio debates, together with material from Birand's historical documentary series on Turkey's coups and early democracy. Most of it dates from 1985 to 2008 and was recorded on Betacam or 1-inch tape. Every segment has an archive ID (REC number), a location and a note from the original tape log; about 62% of entries carry no date and are listed as undated.

Birand Yapım

The archive is owned and operated by Birand Yapım, a production company in Istanbul that also makes documentaries and corporate films. Birand Yapım licenses the footage directly and runs the 32.Gün YouTube channel, which has over a million subscribers, and its English-language sister channel, 32.Day.

How to license footage

Search the catalogue, add segments to your request list and send a request. We pull the tapes, confirm rights, send viewing copies and quote. See licensing for rates.