The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, you must be a paying member of the JTTM; for membership information, send an email to
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, also spelled Kemal Kilicdaroglu, (born December 17, 1948, Ballıca, Tunceli province, Turkey), Turkish economist and politician who has led the Republican People’s Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi; CHP) since 2010. Kılıçdaroğlu was born Kemal Karabulut in the village of Ballıca in Tunceli, a province in eastern Turkey whose population is predominantly Alevi (an Anatolian Muslim community considered heterodox by Turkey’s Sunni majority) and Kurdish. He and his twin brother, Adil, were the fourth and fifth children, respectively, in a family of seven children. Their father, Kamer, worked in the civil service as a land registry officer, while their mother,
'Sultan' Erdogan faces his toughest election, which may give Turkey a new government after 20 years. Who governs Turkey is important because of its geopolitical heft. What are the key issues ahead of the polls, and why does the Opposition fancy a chance?
Seventy-four-year-old Kemal Kilicdaroglu, a former civil servant, is the candidate of the coalition of six Opposition parties for the 14 May presidential elections in Turkey. Owing to his physical resemblance to the Indian leader, the Turkish politician has been dubbed Gandhi Kemal by the local media
Since June 2015 and especially after the failed coup attempt in July 2016, the AKP has taken an increasingly nationalist and Eurasianist turn, as Erdoğan worked to consolidate power by satisfying various nationalist elements. The transition to the presidential system in mid-2018 has intensified Turkey’s existing foreign policy problems and given rise to new ones. This paper lays out the evolution of the AKP’s foreign policy, the consequences of the transition to the presidential system, the impact of Erdoğan’s coalition with the nationalists and Eurasianists, and potential pathways forward.