Hugh Pope Director of Communications & Outreach Brussels, Belgium Crisis Group Role Since February 2015, Hugh Pope is Crisis Group’s Director of Communications & Outreach. He is responsible for the overall planning, organisation and direction of the Communications & Outreach department, for building up Crisis Group’s public face, impact and support for conflict prevention by developing its presence and on international news and social media. Areas of Expertise Turkey: domestic politics, economics, Turkish Islam, the situation of the Kurds Turkey’s membership negotiations with the European Union Turkey and the Middle East The Cyprus dispute The Turkic World Professional Background Crisis Group’s Deputy Program Director for Europe & Central Asia Crisis Group’s Turkey/Cyprus Project Director Turkey & Middle East Correspondent, The Wall Street Journal (1997-2005) Turkey & Central Asia Correspondent, The Independent (1990-1997) Iran & Middle East correspondent, Reuters (1984-1989) Syria & Lebanon correspondent, United Press International (1982-1984) BA, Oriental Studies (Persian with Arabic), Oxford University, UK (1982) Books Dining with al-Qaeda: Three Decades Exploring the Many Worlds of the Middle East (Thomas Dunne/St Martins Press, March 2010), Sons of the Conquerors: the Rise of the Turkic World (an Economist ‘book of the year’ for 2005), and Turkey Unveiled: a History of Modern Turkey (a New York Times ‘notable book’, 1999). Languages English (native) French (fluent) Turkish (fluent) Arabic (conversant) Persian (conversant) Dutch (conversant) In The News 27 Jul 2016 President Erdoğan has long seen himself as a natural ally of the Muslim Brotherhood throughout the Middle East. Any action against the Muslim Brotherhood he saw as a threat to himself. NPR Hugh Pope Director of Communications & Outreach 3 Apr 2013 There is a maturity about the Kurdish question that was not present 10 years ago. Financial Times Hugh Pope Director of Communications & Outreach Latest Updates Podcast / Europe & Central Asia 16 February 2021 War & Peace: Police, Protests & Populism in Central Asia This week on War & Peace, post-Soviet security expert Dr Erica Marat joins Olga Oliker and Hugh Pope to discuss the drivers of anti-establishment protests and the policing thereof across Central Asia and globally. Op-Ed / Europe & Central Asia 4 December 2020 Turkey does its own thing Hugh Pope and Nigar Goksel profile a country deemed too autocratic, too Muslim and too wayward to join the European club. Originally published in Chatham House Speech / Europe & Central Asia 16 December 2016 Turkey and a Region in Crisis The journey from the best to the worst of days in recent Turkish geopolitics was partly determined by a deteriorating diplomatic context. Our Director of Communications & Outreach Hugh Pope looks back on two decades of change in a keynote speech for the Dutch Peace Research Foundation’s annual prizes for best new MA theses on peace. Op-Ed / Europe & Central Asia 4 September 2016 Turkey's Post-Coup Funk Reaches Far and Wide Originally published in Nikkei Asian Review Op-Ed / Europe & Central Asia 17 July 2016 Erdoğan’s Pyrrhic Victory The Turkish leader’s instincts saved him from a coup, but his authoritarian instincts will again threaten his legitimacy. Originally published in Politico Europe Load more