Necdet Özçelik finished his Master’s degree in International Relations at Atılım University and is currently doing academic and field research on terrorism and insurrections. Özçelik retired in 2014 from the Turkish Armed Forces after being employed at the Special Forces Command for many years. Özçelik has not only finished special training as a member of the Turkish Special Forces but has also finished training under the US Special Forces and the NATO Long Range Scouting School. Besides his experience in counter-insurgency in Turkey as a member of the Turkish Special Forces, Özçelik has been active in low-intensity battlefields in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan where he has provided operational support and education as well as advisory support in situations where there are activities of non-state armed actors. Özçelik is currently a researcher at SETA focused on security and defense. His expertise lies in terrorism, counter-terrorism, insurgency and counter-insurgency and non-state armed actors.

2012 yılında Bilkent Üniversitesi Uluslararası İlişkiler bölümünü burslu olarak kazandı. 2013 yılında başladığı Siyaset Bilimi bölümü yan dal programı ve Uluslararası İlişkiler ana bilim dalı programlarından 2016 yılında mezun oldu. Aynı yıl Bilkent Üniversitesi Uluslararası İlişkiler bölümünde yüksek lisans eğitimine başladı. Enes Ayaşlı, University of Wisconsin Siyaset Bilimi bölümünde doktora öğrencisidir. Çalışma Alanları --Suriye İç Savaşı --Suriyeli Muhalif Gruplar --Göç ve Göç Teorileri --Suriyeli Sığınmacılar

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Separation of Al-Qaeda Elements Within HTS The current status between Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham and al-Qaida (AQ) loyalists in northern Syria remains a hotly debated topic. After...

The Strategic Importance of Sinjar in the Fight Against the PKK/PYD While Turkey has cleansed Afrin from terrorist elements with the Operation Olive Branch and...

Bilal Salaymeh has received his Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from YBU-Ankara as top of the class. He is currently pursuing his Master's degree in the same department at METU. Salaymeh is a research assistant in the foreign policy department at SETA foundation working on the Middle East with a particular focus on Syria and Palestine

Furkan Halit Yolcu entered the Political Science and International Relations undergraduate program at Bahçeşehir University in 2011 with a scholarship and graduated in 2015. During his Bachelor study he learned English and during an Erasmus Exchange program he resided in Spain where he learned Spanish for 7 months. He started as a researcher at the Social Sciences Institute of Sakarya University in 2016. Yolcu started learning Arabic at this institute and has done well in Arabic language exams. He has published several works on the 1991 Gulf War, Iran’s intervention in the Syrian War and the proliferation of arms in the Middle East. Yolcu is currently pursuing a Graduate Program at the Middle East institute of Sakarya University. His academic fields of research include: security studies, international relations theories and Jordan studies.

Writer is an international affairs analyst and columnist who has written for publications including Asia Times, Daily Sabah, Anadolu Agency, Hurriyet Daily News and Think Tanks Center for Iranian Studies (IRAM), and South Asia Strategic Research Center (GASAM). His work has also been translated into several languages, including Turkish, Arabic, Albanian, Thai and Bahasa Indonesia.

Can Acun currently is a researcher for the Foreign Policy department at SETA in Ankara. He has finished his Bachelor’s degree in international Relations at the Doğu Akdeniz University and his Master’s degree in Political Science and International Relations at Yeditepe University. Can Acun has finished an education for intercultural dialogue in Canada and has previously worked academically in Egypt’s Cairo at the Cairo-Turkey Research Center and at SETA’s Cairo branch with a focus on Egypt. Can Acun is currently focused on Egypt and the Middle East at SETA in Ankara.

Ömer Özkizilcik works at the Security Department of the SETA Foundation in Ankara and is the editor in chief of Suriye Gündemi

Saleh Seyidli is a Master student of World Politics at Lomonosov Moscow State University who specializes in the Middle East. He has written multiple articles on Turkey, the Syrian Civil War, ISIS, and political Islam in the Balkans for Russian student journal and Yale International Review.

Ömer Behram Özdemir has been working as a research assistant at Sakarya University’s Middle East Institute and the Political Sciences Faculty. He has published several works on ISIS/DAESH, foreign fighters and the Syrian Civil War.

Adem Yılmaz has finished learning Persian at Tahran University’s Dekhoda Institute in 2015. He is presently continuing his education in France and has published articles on Syria’s civil war and Iran’s politics in the Middle East.

PhD candidate in the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Edinburgh. He completed his Viva in October 2017 with some corrections, and has since finished all corrections and received his official letter of degree award by the University in January 2018. His research interests include the Levant politics (with a focus on Syria and Turkey), the refugees and migration studies, and diaspora. He also has a strong interest in studying the modern China-Middle East relations.

Seyyid Çakır has finished his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Relations at Boğaziçi University. Çakır is fluent in Turkish, English and Dutch and has provided simultaneous translation for foreign think-tank analysts. He is currently working at SETA in Istanbul for the European Studies desk and has attended many academic study groups. Çakır’s fields of interest and academic focus are mainly related to security, foreign policy, the Syrian civil war, International Relations, nationalism and identity politics and Islamophobia in Europe.

Author is a columnist for Middle-East and Af-Pak region and Editor of geo-political news agency ViewsAround

Nur Günay has graduated from International Relations in the Dokuz Eylül University and is pursuing her postgraduate at the Turkish National Police Academy.

Enes el-Abde serves as the Head of National Coalition for the Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces

Kutluhan Görücü works at the Foreign Policy Department of the SETA in Ankara and is editor of Suriye Gündemi