The Team

Dr. Özçelik is a full-time teaching staff of Bilkent University Faculty of Law and an expert on Private International Law and EU Law. Since 2009 she has been teaching EU Law, Private International Law, European and International Migration Law, Law of Citizenship and Foreigners, Substantive Law of the EU, Legal Aspects of Turkey-EU Relations, EU Private International Law, International Family Law and Selected Topics in English Law at Bilkent University. She acted as the Coordinator of the Jean Monnet Module on European and International Migration Law (610742-EPP-1-2019-1-TR-EPPJMO-MODULE) between 2019-2022. Her research interests include issues of private international law as regards migrants, circular migration, temporary protection as well as alternative dispute resolution.  

Ms. Ergin is as Assistant Professor of International Law at Bilkent University, Faculty of law. Before joining academia as full-time professor in 2020, she worked at UNHCR Türkiye, Ankara Office for eight years, ultimately serving as Associate Legal Officer. In this role, she coordinated the UNHCR team supporting the national asylum procedures in Türkiye, provided legal guidance during the drafting of the Law No. 6458 on Foreigners and International Protection (the Law), offered legal opinions on the Law’s application, conducted refugee status determinations, and led various project activities under the IPA Funded Reinforcement of National Asylum System in Turkey Project as well as the UNDP-UNHCR Joint Programme on Refugees’ Access to Justice. Prior to her time at UNHCR, she worked as a Senior Human Rights Officer within OSCE Mission in Kosovo from 2006 to 2011, coinciding Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence in 2008, where she also took part in legal drafting of legislation and monitored its implementation. Ms. Ergin holds a PhD in Public Law from Ankara Law School (2019) and an LLM from University of Essex in International Human Rights Law (2005). She received Fulbright Scholarship for her PhD research at Columbia Law School, USA, and a Chevening Scholarship for her LLM Studies in the UK. Her professional focus and publications encompass international law particularly refugee law, forced migration and human rights law.  She has been teaching “International Human Rights Law”; “Specific Aspects of ECHR Protection Mechanism”; “Basic Concepts of Law” and “Case Adjudication in Asylum Cases” at Bilkent University.

Dr. Özgür is Assistant Professor of Private International Law at the Erciyes University Faculty of Law since 2022. Ms. Özgür worked as a research assistant at the same department from 2010 to 2022. She also worked as a visiting researcher at the University of Ferrara for about a year from 2015 to 2016 during her doctoral studies. Her research areas include regular and irregular migration, conflict of laws, international civil procedure, international family law and international trade law. Dr. Özgür is the coordinator of the Roundtable Workshop in Kayseri and teaches at Migration Law Summer School.

Dr. Karaağaç graduated from the Faculty of Law of Gazi University in 2011 and gained his LLM Degree on Private International Law in 2014. He completed his PhD at Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University in 2022. Since 2011 he has been working as a research assistant at the Department of Private International Law of the Faculty of Law at Yalova University (2011-2012, 2018-) and Gazi University (2012-2018). His research areas include international migration law, foreigners law, conflict of laws, citizenship law and international civil procedure law. He is the coordinator of the Roundtable Workshop in Yalova and teaches at Migration Law Summer School.

Ms. Toksoy graduated from Bilkent University Faculty of Law in 2020 and completed the LLM Programme in Private Law at the same Faculty in 2023 with her thesis on “Acquisition of Citizenship by Investment”. She is currently doing her PhD on Private International Law at Bilkent University. Her research interests include issues of private international law as regards citizenship law, foreigners law, international migration law and, conflict of laws. She is one of the assistants who will provide support at every stage of the project. 

Mr. Örge is a graduate of Bilkent University, Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences, Department of International Relations of 2023. Currently he is enrolled in the MA programme and working as a teaching assistant at the same department. His research interests include migration, international political economy, and development. He is one of the assistants who will provide support at every stage of the project.