Bitte Hammargren – Tusen och en story

Bitte Hammargren – Fri skribent, TURKIET- och Mellanösternanalytiker

bitte.hammargren@gmail.com
BlueSky: @bitteham.bsky.social

I Mellanöstern, Nordafrika och Turkiet utspelas geopolitiska maktspel, humanitära tragedier, fruktansvärda krig – och mänskliga stordåd.

Mitt intresse för denna region väcktes när jag som tonåring tågluffade till Nordafrika i början av 1970-talet. Det fortsatte med resor till Libanon 1979 under inbördeskriget och resor till Syrien, Jordanien och Israel/Palestina under tidigt 80-tal.

Läsåret 1982–1983 arbetade jag på ett palestinskt universitetsbibliotek (Bir Zeit) på Västbanken. Där bestämde jag mig för att utbilda mig till journalist. 1986 kom till Svenska Dagbladet, där jag stannade i drygt 25 år, de sista tolv åren som SvD:s Mellanösternkorrespondent (2001–2012), en tid baserad i Beirut och en annan i Istanbul. Åren 2013–2015 bevakade jag denna turbulenta region som frilans. Jag skrev bland annat boken Gulfen: En framtida krutdurk (Leopard förlag 2014, med en 2:a utgåva 2015).

År 2016 startade jag Utrikespolitiska institutets publicistiskt oberoende nättidning Utrikesmagasinet. 2017 blev jag chef för UI:s nystartade Mellanöstern- och Nordafrikaprogram. Under UI-tiden arbetade jag även som rådgivare för Svenska institutet. 2018 övergick jag till FOI, Totalförsvarets forskningsinstitut, som Mellanösternanalytiker. Under FOI-tiden arbetade jag bland annat för Center mot våldsbejakande extremism, CVE.

Sedan 2020 är jag fri skribent, föreläsare och konsult i frågor som rör Turkiet, Nordafrika och Mellanöstern. Jag är också senior associerad medarbetare på Utrikespolitiska institutet. År 2023 kom jag och fotografen Stefan Bladh ut med boken Drama utan slut: Turkiet 100 år (Bokförlaget Atlas).

WRITER and INDEPENDENT TURKEY & MENA ANALYST

Geopolitical power games, immense human tragedies, revolutions and terrible wars, deep rooted cultures and civilizations – and incredible bravery. These are things you find in Turkey, Middle East and North Africa (MENA region).

My interest for the region started when I traveled to North Africa as a teenager in the early 1970’s, followed by visits to Lebanon during the civil war, and to other countries in the North Africa and West Asia throughout the years. For one academic year, 1982–1983, I worked as a librarian at Bir Zeit University on the West Bank. That is where I decided to become a journalist. For more than 25 years, I worked at the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet. For twelve years, 2001–2012, I was the newspaper’s Turkey and MENA correspondent, partly based in Beirut and Istanbul. In 2013–2015, I covered the region as a free lance reporter, analyst and writer. Among my publications is a book about the six monarchies on the Arabian Peninsula (in Swedish, Gulfen: en framtida krutdurk). In 2023 my latest book appeared, on Turkey in Swedish, in cooperation with the photographer Stefan Bladh, Turkiet 100 år: Drama utan slut (Bokförlaget Atlas).

In 2016 I became the editor-in-chief of Utrikesmagasinet,a new online magazine for the Swedish Institute for International Affairs (UI). In 2017 I was became the head of UI's Middle East & North Africa Program. Parallel to that, I worked as an advisor to the government agency The Swedish Institute. In 2018, I became an analyst at the Asia and Middle East Program at FOI, Swedish Defence Research Agency. I have also worked for Center against violent extremism, CVE, another state agency.

From 2020 I resumed working as an independent writer and free lance journalist, analyst and consultant on issues related to Turkey and the MENA region. I am also a Senior Associate Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI).

More information, some in English, can be found on this site.

The picture above, from the Gezi protests in Turkiet in 2013, as well as many other major pictures on this site, are taken by the great photographer and friend Stefan Bladh, who has been my trusted travel companion to many places. For the illustration on my blog, I am indebted to another travel companion, the Lebanese photographer Fadi Yeni Turk who took the picture from Libya’s Green Mountains (Jabal al-Akhdar), while we reported from Libya’s turbulent uprising in April 2011.

Pictures below are taken by myself, or my husband Per Luthander, during travels and assignments in Turkey, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Bahrain, Palestine, Jordan and Armenia.