Before joining BIRN, Firat worked in think tanks and media as a political analyst, journalist and editor and joined several projects on his areas of expertise. Firat’s pieces and comments on Turkey, Turkish foreign policy and the Balkans have appeared in Turkish, Balkan and international media houses including Radikal, Gazete Duvar, PolitikYol, Euronews, Aljazeera Balkans, The Economist and Foreign Policy.
His academic work includes a book chapter entitled “Partners or Security Challengers? The Implications of the Presence of Turkey, the Gulf States, and Iran in the Western Balkans” at the Peace and Security in the Balkans published by Routledge and an academic article entitled “Measuring Turkey’s contemporary influence in Bosnia and Herzegovina: myth and reality” in the Journal of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies.
Firat holds an MSc degree in international relations from the University of Essex, England.
Firat speaks Turkish, English and Bosnian.