[2] Aydınlık was launched in 1921 as the Ottoman Empire's first socialist newspaper (a weekly); it was associated with the Communist Party of Turkey.

[3] In the interim it published authors such as Nâzım Hikmet, Şevket Süreyya Aydemir, Hasan Âli and Kerim Sadi.

In November 1968 it was relaunched as a monthly magazine, by Doğu Perinçek and Vahap Erdoğdu of the Workers Party of Turkey, with contributors including İbrahim Kaypakkaya.

On 1 March 1978 Aydınlık was relaunched as a daily newspaper, but was closed down immediately after the September 1980 Turkish coup d'état.

Earlier in the year Aydınlık had published details of wiretapped conversations between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and North Cyprus's Mehmet Ali Talat.