Oct 2023 - Sep 2024
Dr Salih Bıçakcı was a CATS Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Studies (SWP), currently on leave at Kadir Has University. As a Professor of International Relations and researcher at the university’s Center for Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection, focusing on cyber security, critical infrastructure protection, hybrid security, and data privacy.
His contributions extend globally, presenting at NATO COEDAT, C2COE, and MARSEC. He served as an academic advisor to COEDAT and taught Cyber Security and Middle Eastern Security courses at the Turkish War College. Notably, he authored Turkey's inaugural Nuclear Power Plant cyber security reports and demonstrated leadership through C-level simulations with industry giants ATOS and MARSH.
Dr Bıçakcı's influence in shaping global security is characterized by a deep commitment to advancing knowledge and practical contributions in academic and industry spheres.
Sep 2023 - Aug 2024
While Erol Kaymak was a CATS Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Studies (SWP), he was on leave at the Eastern Mediterranean University, where he is Professor of International Relations. He has produced or contributed to reports on Cyprus published by the United Nations in Cyprus (UNFICYP), the Centre for European Studies (CEPS), CIVICUS, PRIO, as well as the Center for Sustainable Peace and Democratic Development (SeeD).
He served as an advisory board member to the Turkish Cypriot negotiation team between 2010 and 2015. In 2004 Dr. Kaymak was a member of the technical committees that worked with the United Nations to finalize the settlement blueprint prior to submission to referenda. He is coordinator for the Cyprus Chapter of the Greek Turkish Forum. Professor Kaymak is a former director of a Cyprus-based think tank, the Center for Sustainable Peace and Democratic Development (SeeD).
His main area of research focuses on the Cyprus conflict, as well as the role of domestic, regional, and international actors in facilitating peaceful conflict resolution.
Nov 2023 - Aug 2024
Kadri Tastan was a CATS Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Studies (SWP). Kadri spent more than six years at the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) where he led the Turkey Program of GMF in Brussels. He remains a non-resident Senior Fellow at GMF. Kadri was also an IPC Mercator Fellow at CATS/SWP from July 2021 to October 2022. From August 2011 to June 2017, he was an expert for the EU Department of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) in Ankara. He also taught as an adjunct professor at the TOBB University of Economics and Technology from 2013 to 2015.
Kadri holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris III) and an MSc in International Relations from the University of Panthéon Assas (Paris II).
His main area of research focuses on the EU-Turkey relations, European affairs, geopolitics-geoeconomics, climate, energy and trade.
Jun 2022 - Mar 2023
Edgar Şar was a CATS Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). He is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Bogazici University. He received his MA degree in Political Science with his thesis “The Relationship Between Secularism and Democracy: The Case of Turkey in the 2000s”.
Şar is co-founder of the Istanbul Political Research Institute (IstanPol), a Istanbul-based Think Tank.
His research interests include theories of secularism and democracy and democratization.
In his research project at CATS, he focused on the processes of autocratization and the role of the opposition.
Mar 2022 - Jan 2023
Nebahat Tanrıverdi Yaşar was a CATS Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Studies (SWP) in-between Mar 2022 - Jan 2023, and an IPC-Stiftung Mercator Fellow at CATS in-between 2020 and 2021. She works as a freelance researcher.
Her main research areas include Turkish foreign policy, Turkey and the North African States, Turkey's policies towards the African States, Security and defence policy, transition processes in the region. She was a researcher in the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (ORSAM), a research center based in Ankara (2010-2015). Previously, she worked with PANAROMA, a foreign policy journal, FTN News Agency, and the UAE Embassy in Ankara.
Her research project at CATS examined the status of the economic, political, and social policies of Turkey and China in Africa and further explored the interactions between China and Turkey in Africa.
Apr 2022 - Jan 2023
Professor Erdoğan was a CATS Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Studies (SWP). He worked at Turkish German University (2017-2022) and Hacettepe University (1987-2017).
His academic research interests include voluntary and forced migration, refugees, and people of Turkish origin living abroad, EU, political cartoons, political behaviour and Turkish foreign policy.
He conducts comprehensive public opinion research on a regular basis and publishes particularly the “Euro-Turks-Barometer” on Turkish diaspora in Europe, and the “Syrians Barometer” on Syrians in Turkey. He is a member of UNESCO-Turkey, board member of ISC of Metropolis International and the President of IGAM-Academy. Furthermore, he is a Faculty Member of Political Science Faculty of Ankara University and Director of Mülkiye Migration Research Centre.
His research projects at CATS examined firstly political behavior of Turkish society (“diaspora”) in Germany and secondly social cohesion process of Syrian refugees in Turkey and Germany.
Jun 2022 - Nov 2022
Dr Hamidreza Azizi was a CATS Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP).
Currently he is a Visiting Fellow at SWP's Africa and Middle East Research Division. He is also an associate researcher at Clingendael – the Netherlands Institute of International Relations. Between March 2020 and May 2022, he was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow in SWP’s Africa and Middle East Division. Azizi holds a PhD in Regional Studies from the University of Tehran and has worked as a lecturer at several Iranian universities, including the University of Tehran (2016-2018), Shahid Beheshti University (2016-2020) and Allameh Tabataba'i University (2020-2022/ virtual courses).
Azizi’s research interests include security and geopolitical issues in the Middle East and Central Eurasia, Iran’s foreign policy, Iran-Turkey relations, and Iran-Russia relations. His research project at CATS focused on potential areas of cooperation and conflict in Iran-Turkey relations in light of the changing regional geopolitics in the Middle East and the South Caucasus.
Feb 21 - Jan 22 / Feb 22 - Oct 22
Dr Tuba Eldem was a CATS Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Studies (SWP). She is an assistant professor of Political Science and International Relations at Fenerbahçe University. She holds a PhD in Political Science from University of Toronto (2013) and carried post-doctoral research at the Research College of the Transformative Power of Europe, Freie Universität, Berlin.
Her main research areas are Turkish politics and Turkish defense and security policy, civil-military relations, Turkey-NATO relations, non-traditional security threats, cybersecurity and geopolitics of cyberspace. Her research project at CATS focused on the relevance of NATO for the Turkish Armed Forces and Turkey’s future in NATO.
Sep 20 - Jun 21/ Jul 21 - Jun 22 / Jun 22 - Sept 22
Dr Ilke Toygür was CATS Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Studies (SWP). She was Analyst of European Affairs at Elcano Royal Institute and has been a Visiting Researcher in European University Institute (EUI), University of Mannheim, and Brookings Institution.
Her main research areas include Turkish politics and Turkish foreign policy, European integration, Euroscepticism, political parties and elections in Western Europe, Geopolitics of Europe and transatlantic relations.
Her research project at CATS aimed to dismantle the positions of the EU institutions with regard to the foreign policy challenges presented by Turkey.
Apr 2021 - Mar 2022 / Apr 22 - Jun 22
Galip Dalay was a CATS Fellow. He is an associate fellow at Chatham House, a doctoral researcher in the Faculty of History at the University of Oxford, non-resident fellow at the Brookings Doha Center (BDC) and was a Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow in 2020-2021.
His research focuses on the question of regionalism, regional order and governance in the Middle East, Turkish politics, Turkish foreign policy, regional Kurdish politics, Middle Eastern politics, Turkish -Russian and history and politics of Turkish -Western/European relations, and history of post-colonial and post-imperial forms of internationalism.
Dalay’s pieces and analysis have appeared on Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Project Syndicate, Newsweek, Le Monde, Al Jazeera, Open Democracy, Middle East Eye and The World Politics Review.
Apr 2021 - Sep 2021
Kaan Şahin was a CATS Fellow in the Policy Planning Unit at the German Federal Foreign Office since April 2021.
His work focuses on geopolitics and technology, digital sovereignty, and foreign policy in cyberspace. He has been a research fellow for technology and foreign policy at the German Council on Foreign Policy (DGAP). During his time at the DGAP, he was seconded to the Federal Foreign Office as Strategic Advisor for Cyber Diplomacy/EU Presidency. Previously, he worked with Deloitte in the area of cyber risk and the public sector. Prior to that, he received the Mercator Fellowship on International Affairs and specialized in strategies to combat hybrid threats. In this capacity, he was based with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Special Representative of the OSCE for the Southern Caucasus, Carnegie Europe, and at NATO Headquarters.
Oct 19 - Oct 20 / Feb 21 - Jul 21
Suat Kınıklıoğlu was a former member of the Turkish Parliament. He has been a visiting academic at Oxford University St. Antony’s College, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in Washington D.C. and resident scholar at the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago. Also, he was the founding executive director of the German Marshall Fund of the United States’ Ankara office.
His main research areas are Turkish politics and Turkish foreign and security policy, Turkish-Russian relations, Turkey’s strategic identity and political traditions in Turkish politics and Turkey-U.S. relations.
His research project at CATS focused on Turkish neo-Eurasianism and Turkish-Russian relations.
Jun 20 - Feb 21
Dr Bezen Coşkun is an expert in foreign policy. She received her PhD degree from Loughborough University (UK). She has taught at higher education institutions and received several national and international research grants and fellowships, including Intercontinental Exchange on Leadership in Conflict Transformation Research Grant (2015), British Council Research Grant (2014), and GR:ENN European Commission FP7 Research Grant (2014).
Dr Coşkun’s fields of interest are Turkish foreign policy, Turkish migration and refugee policies, conflict analysis, Human security, gender, and foreign policy. At CATS, she was conducting research for the project Turkey as a Partner and Challenge for European Security.
Jul 20 - Dec 20
Alan Makovsky was a senior fellow for National Security and International Policy at the Center for American Progress (CAP). From 1994 to 2001, he worked at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and founded and directed its Turkey Research Program. Alan has also served as a senior professional staff member on the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the U.S. House of Representatives and worked in various capacities related to Turkey and the Middle East at the State Department.
Alan has written widely on Turkish politics. His recent publications focus on Syrian refugees in Turkey, Europe’s Turkish diaspora, and the media landscape in Turkey.
During his fellowship, he contributed to the project A comprehensive refugee strategy for Turkey and worked on US-Turkish relations.