Work Samples in Writing
In this long-form story that I wrote for Al-Monitor, you will meet the Yildiz Family whose members have killed each other due to a political split. The article features a family tree, an audio version and photos by me.
Reza Zarrab is one of the biggest Iranian sanction evaders of all time. His case in the US has been ruining Turkish-American relations and I've been following it inside the federal courthouse for months. This is a wrap-up of the Reza Zarrab affair. I have also constructed an interactive 3D timeline that can be split into categories. Please feel free to play around with the icons on the lower corners of the screen: https://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/953784/The-Reza-Zarrab-Chronology/
I wrote a rise and fall story on Fethullah Gulen, Turkey's most controversial cleric. The 2,500-word piece was published on Al-Monitor, on April 19, 2016.
In this feature story, I focused on two strikingly different Bangladeshi woman entrepreneurs who have succeeded in their careers – despite the odds. The article was published on New York City Lens with the photographs I took, on Oct. 31, 2015.
As a CNN Turk reporter, I covered the war in Kobani from the Turkish-Syrian border for 12 days. During my time there, I wrote an op-ed for CNNTurk.com about how monotonous a war could become and what needed to be done to change the status quo. The article was published in Turkish on Oct. 18, 2014: http://www.cnnturk.com/haber/turkiye/kobani-kanli-macin-stadyumu?utm You may find an English translation on my blog.
The beat I was assigned for my reporting class at Columbia Journalism School was the Bangladeshi community in New York City. One of my first assignments was to report on an event. I chose a conference on domestic violence, one of the most important issues the community is grappling with. The following report was published on my blog on Sept. 21, 2015.
During the Maidan uprising, I was in Ukraine. I spent a total of one week in Kiev and Simferopol, shooting a documentary about the protests and the future of Crimea. In addition, I compiled my observations for CNNTurk.com, on March 18, 2014, in Turkish: http://www.cnnturk.com/haber/dunya/referandum-oncesi-ve-sonrasi-kirim The link below is the English translation.
I went to an industrial suburb just outside of Istanbul, to prepare an exclusive news package about ISIS militant recruitment. I met a family who had lost their only son to the Islamic State. The family was too afraid to speak on camera. However, I convinced them to tell me their story so I could write it for CNNTurk.com, on June 6, 2014, without their photos: http://www.cnnturk.com/haber/turkiye/evladini-iside-kaybedenler Magazine You may find the English translation below.