Burak Çopur has a PhD in Political Science, is an expert on Turkey and migration researcher. He was born in Ankara/Turkey and came with his family to Germany at the age of three. Çopur graduated with a high school diploma, then studied at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany and University of New South Wales in Sydney/Australia.
As a doctoral scholarship holder of the Heinrich Böll Foundation the political scientist submitted his doctoral thesis at the University of Duisburg-Essen under the title: „New German Turkey policy of the Schröder/Fischer government (1998-2005)“. In an apt description the German newspaper WAZ called the dissertation title a „scientific bridge between the old and new homeland.“
Çopur is currently Professor at the IU International University in Essen and lecturer at the Institute of Turkish Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Çopur‘s research interests include within the integration and migration research particularly the highly skilled immigration, internationalisation, intercultural education as well as diversity management. Moreover, his research interests include the International Relations, Middle East, German-Turkish relations, the EU membership of Turkey, the Turkish domestic and foreign policy and the Kurdish and minority issue in Turkey.
Since 2023, he has been head of the new research Centre for Radicalisation and Prevention at the IU International University in Essen. In this role, he also acts as an expert in state protection proceedings at the Higher Regional Courts in Germany.
In 2011 Burak Çopur was selected one of the 100 most successful German-Turks by a jury led by the former President of the German Bundestag Prof. Dr. Rita Süssmuth.
Interviews:
Reuters (17.10.2019): Turkey’s operation in northern Syria splits Germany’s migrant communities
Financial Times (10.04.2017): Turkish rifts stirup Germany as referendum nears
The Wall Street Journal (07.04.2017): Turkish Presidential Referendum Opens Rift Among German Turks
Financial Times (11.03.2017): Germany’s Turkish community riven by splits ahead of poll
The Wall Street Journal (01.08.2016): Turkey and Germany Face New Diplomatic Spat
Publications:
Interviews in German and Turkish:
Interviews in Turkish:
Publications in German: