Merve Tahiroglu is the Project on Middle East Democracy’s (POMED) Turkey Program Coordinator. Prior to joining POMED, Merve was a research analyst at the Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where she focused on Turkey’s domestic politics, foreign policy, and relationship with Washington. Merve has authored several monographs on Turkey and published articles in various outlets such as the Associated Press, TIME, Foreign Affairs, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, Politico, Al Jazeera, Voice of America, NBC, and Huffington Post. Born and raised in Istanbul, Merve earned her Master of Arts in History from Georgetown University and her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Duke University. She is also a fellow with the National Endowment for Democracy’s Penn Kemble Forum on Democracy for 2020-21.