Burcu Karakas

Burcu Karakas (2019) is an independent investigative journalist based in Istanbul, focusing on human rights, gender, migration and free speech issues. She is currently the Turkey correspondent for Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle and Italy-based Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso (OBC) Transeuropa. She is an award-winning reporter, including the European Union Investigative Journalist Prize for her work on suspicious deaths of women in southeastern Turkey. Burcu has teamed up with the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) for “Media Ownership Monitor Turkey” and the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) for in-depth investigative journalism projects. She is the author of four books on minority issues and media landscape in Turkey. Alongside her reporting, she teaches journalism students at a university.

As a Logan Nonfiction Program fellow, Burcu will work on a book about the state-religion relations in Turkey, focusing on the role of Sunni Islam in daily life.