Turkish writer and journalist (born 1948)
Cengiz Candar
(born 1948) is a Turkish politician,
journalist
, senior columnist, and a Middle East expert. He is the author of Turkey's Neo-Ottomanist Moment - A Eurasianist Odyssey (Policy Series) (2021); Turkey's Mission Impossible: War and Peace with the Kurds (2020) and Mezopotamya Ekspresi- Bir Tarih Yolculugu (Mesopotamia Express- A Journey in History) (2012),
[1]
which has been translated into various languages, including Kurdish (Sorani) and Arabic.
[2]
Early life
[
edit
]
Candar finished the secondary school at
Talas American College
in
Talas, Kayseri
and the high school at Tarsus American College in
Tarsus
,
Mersin
.
[3]
Candar graduated from
Ankara University
in 1970 with a
Bachelor's degree
in
political science
and
international relations
.
Career
[
edit
]
Candar began his career as journalist in 1976 for the newspaper
Vatan
after living in the
Middle East
and
Europe
due to his opposition to the regime in Turkey following the military intervention in 1971.
[4]
Being an expert on the Middle East (
Lebanon
and
Palestine
) and the
Balkans
(
Bosnia and Herzegovina
), Candar worked for the
Turkish News Agency
and for the leading Turkish newspapers
Cumhuriyet
,
Hurriyet
,
Sabah
,
Radikal
,
Referans
[5]
and
Gune?
as a war correspondent. Currently, he is a columnist for
Al-Monitor
.
[6]
Candar served as special adviser on foreign policy to Turkish president
Turgut Ozal
between 1991 and 1993. He was the lead on the establishment of relationship between the Turkish Presidency and the Iraqi Kurdish leadership (1991) that led recognition of
Jalal Talabani
and
Massoud Barzani
in Turkey.
[3]
He was also actively involved in Balkan politics, especially during the ethnic unrest in the Balkans between 1993 and 1995. In 1998, he was among the well-known journalists who have been subjected to an aggressive defamation campaign by the military.
[7]
[8]
Between 1999 and 2000, he did research work on "Turkey of the 21st century" as a Public Policy Scholar at the
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
and a Senior Fellow at the
United States Institute of Peace
.
[9]
He described the 1998 events in Turkey as a "post-modern coup".
[10]
Candar is one of the Turkish intellectuals who have recognized the
Armenian genocide
by releasing an apology for the "great catastrophe of 1915". The text of the apology was "My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected to in 1915. I reject this injustice and for my share, I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers and sisters. I apologize to them."
[11]
In 2007, he condemned the authorities for depriving
Aghtamar
of its Armenian past by renaming it to "Akdamar".
[12]
[13]
[14]
His report "Leaving the Mountain': How May the PKK Lay Down Arms?"
[15]
was commissioned by Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation
(TESEV)
(published in Turkish in 2011 and in English in 2012) analyses what type of a political infrastructure is needed to ultimately resolve the 'Kurdish question’.
[16]
[17]
From 2016, he moved to Stockholm, Sweden as Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Stockholm University Institute for Turkish Studies (SUITS) and Senior Associate Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI).
His books written in Stockholm and Berlin, Turkey's Mission Impossible, War and Peace with the Kurds and Turkey's Neo-Ottomanist Moment ? A Eurasianist Odyssey are published in the United States in 2020 and in London in 2021 respectively.
He has taught at Istanbul Bilgi University (1997?1999), Istanbul Kultur University (2002?2010), Ozyegin University (2011). He is a frequent commentator on Turkey, Kurdish issue and Middle East affairs in international newspapers and on TV and lectures globally at universities including at Harvard University,
[18]
Boston and University of Oxford.
[19]
Personal life
[
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]
Candar is married to writer
Tuba Candar
, and they have one daughter. A lifelong
Fenerbahce
fan, he has been a football commentator on
Fenerbahce TV
since 2005.
[20]
Candar is father of curator
Defne Ayas
.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
The English translations of these titles are not the official titles.
- Direnen Filistin
(
The Palestine that Resists
) (1976)
- Dunden Yarına ?ran
(
Iran: From Yesterday to Tomorrow
) (1981)
- Ortado?u Cıkmazı
(
The Middle East Impasse
) (1983)
- Tarihle Randevu
(
Rendezvous with History
) (1983)
- Gune?in Yedi Rengi
(
The Seven Colours of the Sun
) (1987)
- Benim ?ehirlerim
(
My Cities
)(1999)
- Cıktık Acık Alınla
(2001)
- Leaving the Mountain': How May the PKK Lay Down Arms?
(2011)
- Mezopotamya Ekspresi- Bir Tarih Yolculugu
(
Mesopotamia Express- A Journey in History
), ?leti?im Publications (2012)
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Mezopotamya Ekspresi - Cengiz Candar
.
- ^
"Cengiz Candar'ın anıları Mezopotamya Ekspresi ?imdi Arapca"
. Archived from
the original
on 4 March 2016
. Retrieved
4 November
2015
.
- ^
a
b
"archive.ph"
.
archive.ph
. Archived from
the original
on 5 August 2007
. Retrieved
8 December
2022
.
- ^
Candar, Cengiz (October 2000). "A Turk in the Palestinian Resistance".
Journal of Palestine Studies
.
30
(1). University of California Press: 68?82.
doi
:
10.1525/jps.2000.30.1.02p01086
.
- ^
"Contributions at
Referans
"
. Archived from
the original
on 16 December 2010
. Retrieved
8 December
2022
.
- ^
"Cengiz Candar - Al-Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East"
.
- ^
"Philadelphia local news, sports, jobs, cars, homes"
.
Inquirer
. Retrieved
8 December
2022
.
- ^
"Archives"
.
Los Angeles Times
. 6 November 2000.
- ^
"Documents and Papers: Commentaries"
.
Southeast Europe Project
.
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
. Archived from
the original
on 27 October 2008
. Retrieved
27 July
2008
.
- ^
Candar, Cengiz (27 June 1997).
"Post-modern darbe"
.
Sabah
(in Turkish). Archived from
the original
on 22 May 2011
. Retrieved
27 July
2008
.
- ^
"Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized the Armenian Genocide: Fikret Baskaya ? MassisPost"
. 18 September 2015.
- ^
Candar, Cengiz (30 March 2007).
"The so-called 'Akdamar museum'
"
.
Turkish Daily News
. Archived from
the original
on 30 September 2007
. Retrieved
1 July
2008
.
- ^
Candar, Cengiz. "
Ahtamar Kilisesi ya da sozde Akdamar Muzesi
",
Hurriyet
, 29 March 2007
(in Turkish)
- ^
Candar, Cengiz (23 March 2007).
"Beyazdamar kilisesi ve di?erleri"
.
Agos
(in Turkish). Archived from
the original
on 27 September 2007.
- ^
"Resources"
.
- ^
"TESEV report: Current paradigms not valid in solving Kurdish problem"
. Archived from
the original
on 5 March 2016
. Retrieved
4 November
2015
.
- ^
"Archived copy"
(PDF)
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 20 January 2013
. Retrieved
4 November
2015
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link
)
- ^
"Harvard University"
. Archived from
the original
on 8 November 2015
. Retrieved
4 November
2015
.
- ^
"Past Events"
.
St Antony's College
. Retrieved
8 December
2022
.
- ^
"Fenerbahce Spor Kulubu - Fenerbahce SK"
.
External links
[
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]