Ziya Meral

Ziya Meral is a London-based Turkish-British researcher and writer. He is an expert on Turkey, Middle East, human rights and religious freedom, religion and violent conflict, defence and security issues. He regularly gives talks and lectures in leading academic institutions and conferences. He spoke at briefings and events at the UK House of Commons and House of Lords and the U.S. Congress. During 2010–2011, he was a Joseph Crapa Fellow at the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)- a federal body that produces policy proposals for the US government, researching on prevention of ethno-religious violence. He is a Resident Fellow at the UK Army's new independent think-tank, the Centre for Historical Analysis and Conflict Research, based at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He is also the founding Director of the Centre on Religion and Global Affairs- a London, Accra and Beirut based initiative.

He holds a 1st Class BA Hons from Brunel University in London, MDiv from International School of Theology in the Philippines, MSc in Sociology from the London School of Economics and a PhD in Political Science at the University of Cambridge.

He has published opinion editorials and academic essays on a wide range of issues from Turkish and Middle Eastern politics to Islam, human rights, comparative literature and theology.

A play he has written, Kohelet, has been produced by Tiyatro 6 Unsur for stage in Istanbul.

He is the author of various briefings and documents on human rights developments in the Middle East, and the critically acclaimed report on Islam and human rights, "No Place to Call Home: Experiences of Apostates from Islam and Failures of the International Community", which is based on in depth field research in 6 countries, legal surveys of Muslim-majority states and theological surveys of current and traditional Islamic thought.

In 2010, he authored the report "Prospects for Turkey", which covers domestic and foreign policy changes in Turkey during AK Party government for the London-based think tank Legatum Institute.

In September 2011, Kaknus publishing in Istanbul released Ziya Meral's new book "Budala: Nietzsche ve Dostoyevksi Karsi Karsiya" (The Idiot: Nietzsche and Dostoyevsky Face to Face). The book compares the writings, life stories and thoughts of Nietzsche and Dostoyevksy through Nietzsche's use of the novel, the Idiot by Dostoyevsky to deconstruct Jesus in his book the Anti-Christ.

He has also co-authored two reports of the All Party Parliamentary Group on International Religious Freedom at the House of Commons; "Article 18: An Orphaned Right", "Feeling from Persecution: Religion Based Asylum Claims in the UK".

He is a frequent commentator in international and British media, including live interviews on Al Jazeera, BBC World, France 24 ; BBC World Service radio programs including Europe Today, World Have Your Say; BBC Radio's the Today Programme. He has been cited by various British and international newspapers on developments in Turkey and Middle East.