THE SPEAKERS 2024

Alexandros Massavetas

Freelance journalist and writer of travel literature

Alex Massavetas is a freelance journalist and writer of travel literature. Born and raised in Athens, he studied law in the universities of Athens and Cambridge, specialising in international commercial law. He gave up a legal career to pursue his dream of travelling and writing and moved to Istanbul, Turkey in 2003. In Istanbul he worked as a correspondent for Greek and British media, covering Turkey and the Middle East. Relocating to Athens in 2015, he continues to freelance for Greek media.

Alex has authored three travel books on Istanbul and Turkey. His first book, Istanbul, A City of Absences (2011) won the national prize for travel literature in Greece. His fourth book, "The Third Rome - Moscow's Orthodox Ambitions" (2019) explains how Russia successfully uses Orthodox Christianity as a soft power tool to manipulate Greek society, in order to cement a pro-Russian climate, especially within the Greek Orthodox Church and on the Greek cyberspace. The book's publication led to personal attacks against the author by both the Russian Embassy in Greece and the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation.

Based in Athens, Alex spends about 4 months every year travelling. Apart from Greek and English, he is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and French and has good knowledge of Turkish, Italian, Hebrew and Persian.