Sibel Utku Bila has been writing for Al-Monitor since January 2013. She is a freelance journalist based in Ankara who has covered Turkey for 15 years. She was a correspondent for Agence France-Presse (AFP) from 1999 to 2011, and articles she wrote during that period were published in many newspapers around the world. She has also worked as an editor at the Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey’s oldest English-language newspaper.

Al-Monitor:  Why did you decide to become a journalist?

Bila:  I don’t actually remember making a conscious decision. I’d been dreaming of being a journalist since my childhood, when I was fascinated with foreign lands, alien people and different cultures. I probably associated journalism with traveling and going to all those faraway places one day. Eventually, while studying international relations, I got a part-time job as an assistant to the foreign news editor at the Turkish Daily News. There, I got the “journalism virus” for good and never thought of doing something else. Human stories remain my favorite subject.

Al-Monitor:  Did you have female role models to look up to when you were first starting out? Who?