Michael Thumann has been the diplomatic correspondent of Die Zeit since 2013 and is based in Berlin. Prior to that, he reported on Turkey and the Middle East as Die Zeit’s Istanbul Bureau Chief. In 2014/15 and between 1996 and 2001, he reported on Russia and Central Asia as the Moscow Bureau Chief of Die Zeit. From 2002 until 2007, he served as the foreign editor of Die Zeit in Hamburg. In 2010 he was a Bosch Public Policy Fellow at the Transatlantic Academy in Washington, DC. In 2000, he joined the Kennan Institute with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (WWIC) in Washington, DC, as a Public Policy Scholar. Until 2009 he served on the advisory council of WWIC.
Nationalism by Choice: How the Presidents of Turkey and Russia Take Advantage of National Feelings to Stay in Power
2019 Mercator-IPC Senior Fellow Michael Thumann’s policy brief “Nationalism by Choice: How the Presidents of Turkey and Russia Take Advantage of National Feelings to Stay in Power” was published in May 2020.
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“Nasıl bir Dünya? Nasıl bir Türkiye” with Michael Thumann and Evren Balta
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Turkey and the West in Global Turmoil
The Initiative convened the panel “Turkey and the West in Global Turmoil” moderated by Research and Academic Affairs Coordinator and Senior Scholar Senem Aydın-Düzgit with the participation of Mercator-IPC Senior Fellows Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, Atila Eralp, and Michael Thumann on November 25, 2019 at IPC Karaköy.
How to Write for Media
Mercator-IPC Senior Fellows Aslı Aydıntaşbaş and Michael Thumann convened the workshop “How to Write for Media” for the Mercator-IPC Fellows on November 14, 2019 at Adahan Istanbul Hotel.
IPC – Sabancı University – Stiftung Mercator Initiative Inaugural Event
On February 1, 2012, after months of hard work and planning, the partnership between Istanbul Policy Center (IPC) and Stiftung Mercator officially kicked off with an intellectually stimulating discussion on “Policy Challenges for Turkey and the EU: A 2012 Perspective.” The event, at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum in Istanbul, highlighted the IPC-Sabancı University-Stiftung Mercator Initiative, the heart of the partnership, which focuses on three core thematic areas of cooperation: climate change, EU/German-Turkish relations, and education.
The event opened with the warm welcoming remarks from Güler Sabancı, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Sabancı University, who emphasized the importance of the Initiative for the future of Turkish-German relations. Nihat Berker, President of Sabancı University, spoke next, and stressed the significance of the German-Turkish youth exchange programs co-organized by Stiftung Mecator and Sabancı University. Fuat Keyman, Director of IPC, combined both sentiments in stating that “this partnership will be built on the subjects of living together, social policies, and climate change. We want to contribute to the NGOs especially on the subject of climate change, and provide scholarships for the young scholars who are immersed in the three core areas of the Initiative. We will hold comparative studies on climate change, renewable energy, and contemporary trends of the urban transformation in key German and Turkish cities.”
