You Can’t Start and Stop Jihadism at Will

Posted: June 30th, 2016

By Aykan Erdemir

Dr. Aykan Erdemir is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and a former member of the Turkish Parliament (2011-2015). He is a founding member of the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief, and a recipient of the 2016 Stefanus Prize for Religious Freedom. Erdemir holds a PhD in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University, and is co-author of the 2016 book Antagonistic Tolerance: Competitive Sharing of Religious Sites and Spaces (Routledge).

The coordinated terrorist attack at the international airport in Istanbul on Tuesday is the latest in a rash of deadly attacks that have struck Turkey in the past 18 months. The Cipher Brief spoke with Aykan Erdemir, Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former member of the Turkish Parliament, who says the latest incident has the earmarks of ISIS, and he fears the Turkish President will use the attack as an “excuse…to tighten his hold on Turkish politics and society.”

The Cipher Brief: How could Tuesday’s attack on Atatürk International Airport in Istanbul impact Turkey’s security moving forward?

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