Zekeriya Sertel, also known as Mehmet Zekeriya Sertel, (1890–1980) was a Turkish journalist. He is the first director of state press department and founder and editor of various periodicals. From 1950 to 1980 Sertel lived in exile.

Zekeriya Sertel was born in Ustrumca, Macedonia, Ottoman Empire, in 1890.^[1] He graduated from law faculty of Istanbul University.^[1] Then he studied sociology at Sorbonne University and journalism at Columbia University.^[1]

Zekeriya began his journalistic career in 1911 when he established a philosophy magazine entitled Yeni Felsefe Mecmuası (Turkish: New Philosophy Journal) in Salonica.^[2] Then he worked for the Istanbul-based newspaper Tasvîr-i Efkâr edited by Yunus Nadi and owned by Velid Ebuzziya.^[3] Zekeriya established a satirical magazine, Diken, together with Sedat Simavi in 1918.^[4] Next year Zekeriya Sertel and his colleagues founded a weekly magazine entitled Büyük Mecmua (Turkish: The Big Review).^[5] He and his wife, Sabiha, lived in New York City until 1923 where Zekeriya studied journalism at Columbia University and Sabiha attended the New York School of Social Work.^[6] They were granted the Charles Crane scholarship with the help of fellow journalist and writer Halide Edib Adıvar.^[5]

Following their return to Turkey Zekeriya was appointed by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as director of press department of the newly founded Republic of Turkey in Ankara^[1] which he held until 1924 after which his wife and he restarted their journalistic career in Istanbul.^[6] He was the cofounder and first editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet newspaper.^[1] With his wife he founded and edited several magazines including Resimli Ay, Resimli Perşembe, Resimli Hafta and Sevimli Ay.^[6] He also cofounded with other three journalists a newspaper named Son Posta in 1930.^[1] When the Liberal Republican Party was formed by Fethi Okyar in 1930 Zekeriya Sertel and other leftist critics of Mustafa Kemal supported the party.^[7] Sabiha and Zekeriya Sertel were among the owners of another newspaper, Tan which was published from 1935 to 1945.^[1]

Zekeriya married Sabiha in Salonica in 1912.^[10] Zekeriya's family initially opposed the marriage due to the fact that Sabiha was from a dönme family.^[5] Sabiha's family did not support their marriage, either.^[10] However, Doctor Nazım of the Committee of Union and Progress congratulated Zekeriya for his decision to marry a dönme girl, and their wedding ceremony was organized and funded by the committee.^[10] It was the first public marriage of a Muslim Turk man with a dönme girl.^[10]

Following their exile Zekeriya and Sabiha lived in Baku until 1968 when Sabiha died.^[1] Zekeriya had a daughter with who he left Baku for France following the death of his wife.^[1][11] He died in Salpetriere Hospital, Paris, on 12 March 1980.^[1]