Amberin Zaman is a Turkish journalist and a senior correspondent for

Al-Monitor Al-Monitor ( ar, المونيتور) is a news website launched in February 2012 by the Arab American entrepreneur Jamal Daniel and based in Washington, DC, United States. Al-Monitor provides reporting and analysis from and about the Middle East. ...

. Having started as a journalist in Turkey, Zaman contributes to various newspapers throughout the world. Her writing is centered on

minority rights Minority rights are the normal individual rights as applied to members of racial, ethnic, class, religious, linguistic or gender and sexual minorities, and also the collective rights accorded to any minority group. Civil-rights movements ...

issues in Turkey.

Life and career

Amberin Zaman is the daughter of Arshad-uz Zaman a former Bangladeshi Ambassador and member of parliament. Her mother is a Turk from Istanbul. She was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and has studied in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. She returned from the United States where she became Turkey's correspondent for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'', ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

'', ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', and ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'' in 1992. After being sacked from ''

Habertürk ''Habertürk'' (literally: "News Turkish"), abbreviated as ''HT'', was a high-circulation Turkish newspaper. It was established on March 1, 2009 by Ciner Media Group, drawing on the brand of Ciner's Habertürk TV. It ceased publication on 5 July ...

'', Zaman was employed with the liberal newspaper '' Taraf.'' She also specialises in Kurdish issues and is currently a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington DC She additionally is a columnist for the independent online Turkish news portal

Diken Diken is a town and a nagar panchayat A nagar panchayat (town panchayat; ) or Notified Area Council (NAC) in India is a settlement in transition from rural to urban and therefore a form of an urban political unit comparable to a municipali ...

and for

Al Monitor Al-Monitor ( ar, المونيتور) is a news website launched in February 2012 by the Arab American entrepreneur Jamal Daniel and based in Washington, DC, United States. Al-Monitor provides reporting and analysis from and about the Middle East. ...

Views and controversies

Amberin Zaman has been a supporter of minority rights in Turkey. She is a proponent of normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations and regularly discusses the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily through t ...

in her columns. In 2014, she participated in a conference by the

Hrant Dink Foundation Hrant Dink Foundation is an organization established following the 2007 assassination of Hrant Dink, a prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist, in order to "carry on Hrant’s dreams, Hrant’s struggle, Hrant’s language and Hrant’s heart". Amon ...

that was dedicated to Armenian-Turkish reconciliation. Zaman, who recognizes the Armenian genocide as fact, believes that the Turkish government must reconcile with its history concerning the Armenians. In response to the Turkish government's letter of condolences to Armenians on 24 April 2014, Zaman declared: Zaman states that she is a target of a vilification campaign by pro-government media. In 2013, Amberin Zaman was sacked as a journalist for HaberTurk because of columns that were considered unacceptable by the government. Zaman was attacked on Twitter for reporting the

Gezi Park protests A wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Turkey began on 28 May 2013, initially to contest the urban development plan for Istanbul's Taksim Gezi Park. The protests were sparked by outrage at the violent eviction of a sit-in at the park prote ...

. She described the attacks as "abusive, violent and sexual". In 2014, the Prime Minister of Turkey,

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to ...

, called Amberin Zaman "A militant in the guise of a journalist, a shameless woman... Know your place!" and "scum" at two successive election rallies. In a response to the accusations by the Prime Minister, Zaman wrote a column in the newspaper ''Taraf'' entitled "First be a human!" (Turkish: Önce insan ol!) A public apology campaign had started with numerous human rights groups and journalist associations throughout the world. Erdogan's rhetoric was condemned by a representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation, ''The Economist'', and the Turkish Journalists' Association. The Equality Monitoring Women's Group of Turkey collected 130 signatures demanding that Erdogan apologize for his language. Zaman "experienced a mass attack on Twitter" for her reporting on the ''Charlie Hebdo'' shooting in January 2015. Zaman stated: "It's like a public lynching. It has made me frightened for my physical safety when I am out in the streets." In November 2022 she experienced a smear campaign launched against her by pro-Turkish-government media outlets and social media users after she met with Turkey’s main opposition leader

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (born Kemal Karabulut, 17 December 1948) is a Turkish economist, retired civil servant and social democratic politician. He is leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP) and has been Leader of the Main Opposition in ...

in London.

Personal life

She is married to Joseph Pennington, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq.

References

External links

CivilNet interview with Amberin Zaman: Dissident Voices Being Silenced in Turkey (YouTube video)CivilNet interview with Amberin Zaman: People Don't Fear Authorities Anymore (YouTube video)Amberin Zaman during a Hrant Dink conference on Turkish and Armenian reconciliation (YouTube video in Turkish)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zaman, Amberin Turkish women journalists Living people Journalists from New York City Minority rights activists Date of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people)