I have spent a substantial part of my professional life following foreign policy affairs and commenting on them.
When a friend, Abdülkadir Özkan,was the chief editor of the daily Milli Gazete, I mostly wrote on developments in the Middle East with the pen name “Fehmi Muzafferoğlu”. Later on, I wrote frequently from London, Damascus and Boston when I lived in each of those cities and my pieces were published in the daily Yeni Devir with another pen name “A. Akıncı”. In Islam Magazine (İslam Mecmuası in Turkish) known as ‘the best-selling monthly in Turkey’ at that time, I edited singlehandedly the whole chapter related to world affairs.
Simultaneously, I contributed to several foreign newspapers and magazines.
[During my time in Boston I received my master’s degree from Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. So, again on foreign policy.]
My interest for foreign policy affairs continued when I had a column in newspapers. In my first year in the daily Zaman as the chief editor, Haluk Atlas, who wrote on international affairs due to the absence of an able commentator of the paper in the field, was actually my pen name.
The difference between yesterday and today