Şerif Turgut is a Turkish journalist and the first woman war correspondent of Turkey, best known for her coverage during the

Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...

. Şerif Turgut received her master's degree in international politics from George Washington University, USA.

Early career

She decided to be a war correspondent when she saw the photographs from the Omarska camp, a death camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina set up and run by the Army of Republika Srpska in the first months of Bosnian War. She went to Bosnia on her own as a freelance journalist. Intended in the beginning to stay ten days only, she remained in Bosnia for almost five years when her life changed after she witnessed the horror there.

Bosnian War coverage

She reported for the Turkish television channel

ATV ATV may refer to: Broadcasting * Amateur television *Analog television Television stations and companies * Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra * ATV (Armenia) * ATV (Aruba), NBC affiliate * ATV (Australian TV station), Melbourne * ATV (Austria) * AT ...

from the Bosnian War, at which more than hundred thousand people were killed between 1992 and 1995. Turgut went on to cover the Kosovo War, Iraq War and many other conflicts including the

Algerian Civil War The Algerian Civil War ( ar, rtl=yes, الْحَرْبُ الْأَهْلِيَّةُ الجَزَائِرِيَّةُ, al-Ḥarb al-ʾAhlīyah al-Jazāʾirīyah) was a civil war in Algeria fought between the Algerian government and various Is ...

, Western Sahara War and Second Chechen War. During the Kosovo War, she also helped immigrants, who fled their home to settle in Turkey, by giving information about their relatives living still in Kosovo.

UN

She served more than three years as the United Nations Head of Public Information Office for Central Liberia. During this time, she was involved in creation and management of information dissemination mechanisms in the fields such as demilitarization, social integration, political rehabilitation, elections and post conflict transition.

Honors

She received more than ten national and international awards for her journalism achievement during the Bosnian War. In 2002, Turgut became an International Knight Fellow at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. Şerif Turgut featured in the documentary television series titled ''Savaşı Anlatan Kadınlar'' (literally: "Women War Correspondents") broadcast by the Turkish channel

TRT The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT; Turkish : ) is the national public broadcaster of Turkey, founded in 1964. TRT was for many years the only television and radio provider in Turkey. Before the introduction of commercial radio i ...

on the

International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against wom ...

in 2013.

Personal life

She was a friend of Spanish war correspondent

Miguel Gil Moreno de Mora Miguel Gil Moreno de Mora (June 21, 1967 – May 24, 2000) was a Spanish cameraman and war correspondent, working for Associated Press. After a successful career as a corporate lawyer in Barcelona, Spain, Miguel became a freelance war correspond ...

, with whom she went to Srebrenica right after the 1995 massacre there. Miguel Gil Moreno was later shot to death in the Sierra Leone Civil War. During her service in the

Second Liberian Civil War The Second Liberian Civil War was a conflict in the West African nation of Liberia lasted from 1999 to 2003. It was preceded by the First Liberian Civil War, which ended in 1996. President Charles Taylor came to power in 1997 after victory in t ...

, she became a friend of the war correspondents Tim Hetherington from England and Chris Hondros from the U.S., who were killed in the

2011 Libyan Civil War The First Libyan Civil War was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya that was fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that were seeking to oust his government. It erupted with the Liby ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turgut, Serif Date of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) George Washington University alumni Turkish war correspondents Turkish women journalists Turkish television journalists Sabah (newspaper) people War correspondents of the Iraq War Stanford University Knight Fellows Turkish officials of the United Nations Living people Year of birth missing (living people)