Ece Temelkuran
(Turkey, 1973) is an award-winning Turkish writer, political thinker, and speaker. After leaving her home country in 2016, she wrote How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Fascism. In 2021, she published Together: A Manifesto Against the Heartless World, now translated into Dutch for the first time, and in 2025 Nation of Strangers was published, with the Dutch translation appearing in 2026. Her work is translated and published worldwide. She currently lives in Berlin and serves on the advisory boards of Progressive International and DemocracyNext.
Past events
The Return of Sultans & Tsars?
Are the tsars and sultans back or have they never been away? A conversation about the backgrounds of the current turbulent times in Turkey and Russia.
Ece Temelkuran's text of her life
is a poem by Emily Dickinson. The leading journalist and writer from Turkey explains why. In English.
VPRO De Avonden Live: Ece Temelkuran and Adriaan van Dis
Interviews with these writers from Turkey and The Netherlands. In English and Dutch.
The Medium and the Message
The social and political influence of the new media is praised extensively as well as severely criticised. David Van Reybrouck hosts a discussion with Sami Ben Gharbia (Tunesia), Ngwatilo Mawiyoo (Kenya) and Ece Temelkuran (Turkey) about the hopes and dreams of changing the world and the possibilities impossiblilities that the Internet provides in achieving this goal. Including a performance of composer, performer and poet Jaap Blonk. In English.
Around the World with Umar - Among the Believers
In countries like Indonesia and Turkey religion gets a hold over politics. Is religion taking over or is there still a future for a country separating religion and state. Umar Mirza talks to Ece Temelkuran (Turkey) and Ahmad Tohari (Indonesia) on the influence of state-imposed ideals. With music by the Iranian master of percussion Mohammad Reza Mortazawi. In English.
