Projects & Field Research Experience

RECENT PROJECT:

Between 2018 and 2020, I collected data for the BIAA project on Turkish Perceptions of the UK. I did archival research of the Turkish parliament and newspapers from 1974 to 2018; interviewed politicians, diplomats and businesspeople on bilateral relations (including the former President of Turkey Mr Abdullah Gül and two former Turkish ambassadors to the UK) and have helped prepare a survey question on the UK for a Turkey-wide public opinion survey.

Part of the data collected from the Turkish National Assembly archives was used in the article "Reconsidering Britain’s Soft Power: Lessons from the Perceptions of the Turkish Political Elite," Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Online First (October 2020): 1-19

The Dataset can be downloaded from the Aston University Data Explorer: https://doi.org/10.17036/researchdata.aston.ac.uk.00000478

or here:

PAST PROJECTS:


I collected data for my dissertation in Salonica and Athens, Greece in Fall 2003 - Fall 2004

  • I interviewed ten military officers from the 1967-1974 junta, including one of the leaders of the regime, Colonel Stylianos Pattakos.

  • I interviewed sixty three businessmen (from the following associations: SEB, SBBE, EBEA, EBETH, EEE) whose family companies were in business during the 1967-1974 junta.

  • I did archival research (newspapers and parliamentary proceedings) at the national parliament.


In Fall 2004 - Fall 2005 I did research in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, and Mugla, Turkey for my dissertation

  • I interviewed five military officers from the 1960-1980 period, including the leader of the 1980 intervention, General Kenan Evren.

  • I interviewed the leaders of the two major parties from the 1960-1980 period, Mr. Süleyman Demirel and Mr. Bülent Ecevit.

  • I interviewed fifty businessmen (from the following associations: TOB, TÜSIAD, ISO, ITO) who were in business during the 1960-1980 period.


In August 2007, I conducted field research at the Library of Congress and talked with several State Department officials and Turkey experts in Washington, DC about American foreign policy toward Turkey between 1980 and 1983. This research was for a case study report I was preparing with Senem Aydın-Düzgit for the Evaluating International Influences on Democratic Development project led by Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law.


Between April 2011 and June 2012, I participated in the pilot of the political opinion survey prepared for a TÜBİTAK project. For the same project, I also interviewed 25 leading Turkish business people, academics/university presidents and journalists/chief editors of newspapers.


In March 2014, I did interviews with 18 Greek leaders in Athens, including current and former ministers, government spokesmen, businessmen and workers' representatives for my book project.