Ece Temelkuran

Ece Temelkuran
Photo by Joanna Paciorek
Born (1973-07-22) 22 July 1973 (age 51)
Izmir, İzmir Province, Turkey
NationalityTurkish
Alma materAnkara University
Occupation(s)Writer, Political commentator, Journalist
Notable workHow to Lose a Country
Websitehttps://ecetemelkuran.net/

Ece Temelkuran (born 22 July 1973, in Izmir[1][2]) is a Turkish journalist and author. She was a columnist for Milliyet (2000–2009) and Habertürk (2009 – January 2012), and a presenter on Habertürk TV (2010–2011).[1] She was fired from Habertürk after writing articles critical of the government, especially its handling of the December 2011 Uludere massacre.[3][4][5][6] She was twice named Turkey's "most read political columnist".[citation needed] Her columns have also been published in international media such as The Guardian, The New York Times, La Stampa, Der Spiegel, Internazionale and Le Monde Diplomatique.[1]

A graduate of Ankara University's Faculty of Law, she lived in Beirut, Tunis, and Paris, to write her novels. 

In 2008 she was a visiting fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, during which time she wrote Deep Mountain, Across the Turkish-Armenian Divide.[1][7]

For her book Turkey: The Insane and the Melancholy, she won the Edinburgh International Book Festival First Book award for her novel Women Who Blow On Knots and the Ambassador Of New Europe Award.

She was awarded the Human Rights Association of Turkey's Ayşe Zarakolu Freedom of Thought Award in 2008.[1]

From March 2021 to September 2023 she was a fellow at The New Institute, Hamburg, working on a project "A New Vocabulary for 21st Century Progressives. She is on the advisory board of Progressive International and Democracy Next.

In 2019, she published a nonfiction the internationally acclaimed book How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship, about the rise of right-wing populism and how it operates.[8]

2021 saw the publication of her non-fiction book “Together:10 Choices for a Better Now” extolling the virtues of humanity and the need to be “together”.

She is on the advisory board of Progressive International and Democracy Next.

In 2023 she received the El Mundo International Journalism Awards in the Freedom of the Press category for her body of work.

  1. ^ a b c d e "About", ecetemelkuran.net Archived 2016-04-21 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ "Ece Temelkuran"", haberler.com
  3. ^ Al Akhbar (6 January 2012), Firing Turkey's Ece Temelkuran: The Price of Speaking Out Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Ayla Albayrak (9 January 2012), "Turkish Colonel, Journalist Fired Over Kurdish Killings", The Wall Street Journal blog
  5. ^ Ece Temelkuran (27 January 2012) Turkish journalists are very frightened – but we must fight this intimidation, The Guardian
  6. ^ Ayça Tomaç, translator (19 January 2012). "Turkish "democracy": The two articles that caused the firing of Turkish journalist Ece Temelkuran". Sendika.Org. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  7. ^ BOA Editions, Ltd., Book of the Edge Archived 2015-09-12 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ SHAH, VIKAS. "A Conversation with Ece Temelkuran on How to Lose a Country, in 7 Steps". Retrieved 6 July 2020.