Research fellow at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. After graduating from Charles University, Prague and the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, his main fields of activity included Islamic, Arabic and Turkish studies, with special emphasis on Islam, nationalism and secularism in modern Turkey. He has published and lectured extensively at various universities both in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, his monographs include Turkey - A Short History (2006, in Czech) and Islam in Turkey (2004, in Slovak). Gabriel Piricky also worked as a diplomat, secretary of the Slovak section of the Association of European Journalists and managing editor of the scientific journal Asian and African Studies. He is currently a vice-chairman of the Slovak Oriental Society.