Nuray Mert, (born 1960 in

Trabzon Trabzon (; Ancient Greek: Tραπεζοῦς (''Trapezous''), Ophitic Pontic Greek: Τραπεζούντα (''Trapezounta''); Georgian: ტრაპიზონი (''Trapizoni'')), historically known as Trebizond in English, is a city on the B ...

, Turkey) is a Turkish columnist and

political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

. She is a columnist for Hürriyet Daily News. Mert is also a Bilderberg participant.

Academic career

After graduating from Feyziye Mektepleri Işık College, she studied political science and

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

Boğaziçi University Boğaziçi University ( tr, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi), also known as Bosphorus University, is a major research university in Istanbul, Turkey. Its main campus is located on the European side of the Bosphorus strait. It has six faculties and tw ...

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

, where she obtained the

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

on a thesis entitled ''Prens Sabahaddin ve Terakki Mecmuası'' ("

Prens Sabahaddin Mehmed Sabahaddin (13 February 187930 June 1948) was an Ottoman sociologist and intellectual. Because of his threat to the ruling House of Osman (the Ottoman dynasty), of which he was a member, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries due t ...

and ''Terakki'' Magazine"), and the

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

on a thesis entitled ''Erken Cumhuriyet Döneminde Laik Düşünce'' ("Secular Thought in the Early Republican Period"). She worked for some time as a

research assistant A research assistant (RA) is a researcher employed, often on a temporary contract, by a university, a research institute or a privately held organization, for the purpose of assisting in academic or private research. Research assistants are not in ...

at Boğaziçi University, after which she became lecturer at the Department of Economics of Istanbul University. Mert ile Söyleşi
" Mediterranean Studies Forum website, 11 September 2012. Accessed: 2 July 2015. In 2012–2013, she was an International Scholar in Residence at the

Stanford Humanities Center Stanford University has many centers and institutes dedicated to the study of various specific topics. These centers and institutes may be within a department, within a school but across departments, an independent laboratory, institute or center ...

.Welcoming 9 New Affiliates
" Stanford Global Studies website, 21 April 2012. Accessed: 2 July 2015.

Journalism

She used to host a TV show, but this was dropped after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan publicly criticized her. She was also fired on February 19, 2012 from her job as a columnist for the daily newspaper '' Milliyet''. Mert has said that she now fears for her personal safety. The

Turkish Journalists' Association The Turkish Journalists' Association ( tr, Türkiye Gazeteciler Cemiyeti, TGC) is an association for journalists in Turkey. It was founded on 10 June 1946, shortly after the abolition of the Turkish Press Union (Türk Basın Birliği), membership o ...

has denounced the attacks on Mert by Erdoğan. In August 2017, Mert was fired from the newspaper

Cumhuriyet ''Cumhuriyet'' (; English: " Republic") is the oldest up-market Turkish daily newspaper. It has been described as "the most important independent public interest newspaper in contemporary Turkey". The newspaper was awarded the ''Freedom of Pr ...

after writing an article questioning the validity of

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

and another one in support of

mufti A Mufti (; ar, مفتي) is an Islamic jurist qualified to issue a nonbinding opinion (''fatwa'') on a point of Islamic law (''sharia''). The act of issuing fatwas is called ''iftāʾ''. Muftis and their ''fatwas'' played an important role ...

s performing marriages.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mert, Nuray Turkish political scientists Living people 1960 births People from Trabzon Boğaziçi University alumni Istanbul University faculty Turkish women journalists Turkish women writers Milliyet people Women political scientists