Professor Yaprak Gürsoy

Yaprak Gürsoy is Professor of European Politics and Chair in Contemporary Turkish Studies at LSE. Prior to joining the European Institute, she was a Senior Lecturer and the Undergraduate Programme Director of Politics and International Relations at Aston University. She was also a Senior Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford University and an Associate Professor at Istanbul Bilgi University.

Yaprak completed her PhD in foreign affairs at the University of Virginia in 2008. Since then, she has worked on regime change and consolidation, democratization, civil-military relations, coups d’état, populism, and the influence of the European Union on domestic politics. She has published extensively on these subjects, mainly focusing on Türkiye in comparison with Southern Europe. Her research and publications were recognized in 2016 by the Turkish Science Academy with a Young Scientist Award (BAGEP), given to promising academics. In 2023, she was among the recipients of the Koç University Alumni Awards in the category of Achievement in the Academia. Yaprak is the author of The Transformation of Civil-Military Relations in Turkey (Istanbul: Bilgi University Press, 2013, in Turkish) and Between Military Rule and Democracy: Regime Consolidation in Greece, Turkey, and Beyond (University of Michigan Press, 2017).

More recently, Yaprak’s project on Türkiye-UK Relations was funded by the British Institute at Ankara (BIAA). This new area of research has led her to explore Turkish perceptions of the UK and the impact of collective emotions and memory on international relations and politics.

Between 2018 and 2023, Yaprak was the co-founder and co-convener of the Turkish Politics Specialist Group in the Political Studies Association (PSA). Since 2019, she has served as a council member of the British Association for Turkish Area Studies (BATAS). In 2022 and 2024, she received an Excellence in Education Award by LSE.

As the Chair in Contemporary Turkish Studies at LSE, she teaches and researches her main areas of interest, including Türkiye’s relations with the West and the UK, and Turkish politics in comparative perspective. She is also leading the Contemporary Turkish Studies research group at LSE and organising its vibrant public events programme.

Expertise

Regime Change, Democratization, Civil-Military Relations, Coups d’État, Populism, Southern Europe, Anglo-Turkish Relations

As Chair in Contemporary Turkish Studies, since 2021, Prof Yaprak Gürsoy has convened a broad programme of public lectures, panels and workshops at LSE. These events bring together leading scholars to examine key developments in Turkish politics, society and international relations, promoting critical and interdisciplinary dialogue on contemporary Türkiye.

A full list of these events can be found here: Past Events - LSE

Selected reports:

"Brexit: Türkiye-Birleşik Krallık-AB İlişkilerinde Siyasi ve Ekonomik Riskler ve Fırsatlar," (Brexit: Political and Economic Risks and Opportunities in Turkish-UK-EU Relations) Dış Ekonomik İlişkiler Kurulu (DEIK), September 2019.

"Brexit and the UK-Turkey Relationship," Renewing and Rethinking Bilateralism after Brexit, edited by Andrew Glencross, Aston Centre for Europe, July 2019.

"Turkish Elite’s Perceptions of the UK from 1973 to Brexit," Heritage Turkey (annual publication of the British Institute at Ankara (BIAA) containing reports on supported research), Vol. 8 (2018).

Selected opinion pieces and blog posts:

"The Earthquake Might Upend More Than Turkey’s Elections," The World Today, Chatham House Publications, 31 March 2023.

"Turkey is facing its own coronavirus crisis – so why is it sending medical supplies to the UK?," The Conversation, 22 April 2020.

"Turkish Populism as a ‘Theory-Reconstructing’ Case Study," LSE Euro Crisis Blog, 11 December 2019.

"Why would a Third Country Root for Soft Brexit? Views and Lessons from Turkey," The Foreign Policy Centre, 29 January 2019.

"Turkey in and out of NATO? An Instance of a Turbulent Alliance with Western Institutions," (with İlke Toygur), Royal Institute of Elcano ARI 73/2018, 11 June 2018.

"The Recent Crisis between Greece and Turkey: Two NATO Allies on the Brink of War, Again," The Foreign Policy Centre, 24 April 2018.