Ezgi Başaran

Who is Ezgi Başaran?

Ezgi Başaran is a journalist who made her name covering Turkey’s Kurdish conflict. She started her career in 2004 at Hurriyet daily as a reporter. After accepting an offer to write a daily column on Turkish politics, she became the youngest ever editor of Radikal, the biggest centre-left news outlet in Turkey, and the first woman to hold the role. Ezgi is now the coordinator of the Programme on Contemporary Turkey at the South East European Centre (SEESOX) at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, where she explores the bridge between journalism and academia. She holds a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree in Modern Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Oxford and is a Doctorate of Philosophy (DPhil) candidate in Oriental Studies at the same university. Her current research focuses on the interplay between North African Islamist movements – especially Egyptian, Tunisian, and Moroccan – and Turkish Islamism. Her book Frontline Turkey: The Conflict at the Heart of the Middle East is published by IB Tauris/Bloomsbury in October 2017. Ezgi is an Istanbulite living in Oxford.