Ahmet S Yayla

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Ahmet S. Yayla is the Director of the Center for Homeland Security at DeSales University and an Assistant Professor of Homeland Security. Dr. Yayla is also a member of the faculty at Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies Program in Master's in Applied Intelligence. Additionally, Dr. Yayla is a research fellow at the George Washington University Program on Extremism.

Dr. Yayla is a 20-year veteran of the counterterrorism and operations department in the Turkish National Police and served as the chief of counterterrorism in Sanliurfa, Turkey between 2010 and 2013. He earned his Master's Degree and Ph.D. in the United States. Dr. Yayla has published both scholarly works and written or co-written numerous articles related to counterterrorism and homeland security. Yayla is the co-author of the recent book ISIS Defectors: Inside Stories of the Terrorist Caliphate.

twitter: @ahmetsyayla
facebook.com/ahmetsyayla
Address: Washington DC

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Papers by Ahmet S Yayla

Anatomy of Terrorist Cells: A Critical Examination and Identified Gaps in Current Research

Studies in Conflict & Terrorism , 2025

Terrorist organizations often use cell structures to conduct operations while evading detection. ... more Terrorist organizations often use cell structures to conduct operations while evading detection. This article analyzes terrorist cells' organizational frameworks and operational mechanisms through historical and contemporary case studies. It examines challenges in dismantling them by exploring cell members' roles, communication methods, and security practices. Drawing on two decades of counterterrorism experience and primary sources from various terrorist groups, this article highlights the need to treat cell structures as a specialized area of focus to inform humane, legally grounded counterterrorism strategies. Focusing on cell organization addresses the gap in the literature in understanding the internal dynamics of terrorist networks worldwide.

Anatomy of Terrorist Cells: A Critical Examination and Identified Gaps in Current Research

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Preventing Terrorist Recruitment through Early Intervention by Involving Families

Journal for Deradicalization, 2020

Preventing terrorist recruitment is one of the most effective and less lethal methods of counteri... more Preventing terrorist recruitment is one of the most effective and less lethal methods of countering terrorism, and yet it is often overlooked. This article describes a program designed and administered by the author to prevent terrorist recruitment through early intervention, by promoting the involvement of the families of potential recruits in their children's activities and in a counterterrorism program that was developed and implemented in Sanliurfa, Turkey, for four years, from 2010 to 2014. The article details the concept and structure of the program, provides insights on how it was developed and administered, and presents the data, an analysis, and the findings. In addition, this article reports on the outcomes of the program and offers insights into why the youth in Sanliurfa were struggling to break their ties with terrorist organizations.

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Policing as Rebel Governance: The Islamic State Police

George Washington University Program on Extremism, 2021

This paper holds that ISIS employed a substantial, administratively cohesive, operable police org... more This paper holds that ISIS employed a substantial, administratively cohesive, operable police organization that took care of ‘ordinary’ public order and law enforcement tasks. While the Departments of Public Security (emni) and Religious Compliance (hisba) have been at the center of most media coverage and popular literature on the Islamic State, ISIS’s policing capacities through its Islamic State Police (shurta) wing have not been studied so far. This paper adds to the literature by taking stock of the manner in which ISIS set up a working police force, designed rules of governance, developed ensuing practices of enforcement, and engendered support. In doing so, the authors situate the paper’s findings within the broader academic debate on governance by non-state actors. This also opens up the uneasy but highly relevant question of ISIS statehood, which can be related to the concept of ‘rebel governance.’ Such an approach offers a number of important policy implications—including a strategic understanding of ISIS’s sweeping initial successes—by addressing the ways in which ISIS generated and sustained public authority and legitimacy through a variety of police practices.

https://isisfiles.gwu.edu/concern/reports/4t64gn166?locale=en

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Prevention of Recruitment to Terrorism

The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism - The Hague (ICCT)

The long-term survival of terrorist organizations relies on their ability to attract new members ... more The long-term survival of terrorist organizations relies on their ability to attract new members and maintain an ongoing terrorist recruitment cycle. The numbers of terrorist organization members may decrease due to counterterrorism operations or defections, forcing the leaders of those groups to seek new members. Preventing terrorist recruitment is one of the most effective and least lethal methods of countering terrorism, and yet it is often overlooked by those combating terrorism. Western governments did not stop Al-Qaeda from recouping its losses, even after it suffered devastating losses in the months following the 9/11 attacks. The fact is that Al-Qaeda had only around 400 armed members at the time of 9/11, as opposed to thousands of affiliated members in 2019. Although the recruitment strategies of different organizations may vary, they follow a similar historical pattern. All recruiters must first identify qualified candidates, then establish secure connections, build rapport, indoctrinate them, and slowly pull them into an organization. ISIS proved that this process could be fast-forwarded through online propaganda and social media. Preventing recruitment in the first place can be the most fruitful, and maybe also least expensive, method used to counter terrorism. Successfully short-circuiting the recruitment cycle may save thousands of lives of prospective recruits and many more lives by thwarting future attacks. This chapter aims to present a holistic and comprehensive road map for interrupting and preventing terrorist recruitment by identifying relevant societal factors and triggers that recruiters use to find and control their subjects.

https://icct.nl/app/uploads/2021/01/Handbook-Ch-13-Yayla-final.pdf

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Turkish ISIS and AQ Foreign Fighters: Reconciling the Numbers and Perception of the Terrorism Threat

Studies in Conflict & Terrorism , 2019

This article attempts to establish a database of the numbers of the Turkish ISIS and AQ foreign t... more

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The ISIS Emni: Origins and Inner Workings of ISIS's Intelligence Apparatus

This article, relying primarily on first person accounts of actual ISIS defectors, expands upon t... more This article, relying primarily on first person accounts of actual ISIS defectors, expands upon the work of investigative journalist Christoph Reuter of Der Spiegel (Hamburg, GFR) who first reported on the discovery of the files of Haji Bakr, one of the Iraqi organizers of the ISIS's Emni in the years when preparations for the Islamic State were made. Bakr's files make clear that ISIS is not just a terrorist organization, but was set up by former Baathist state intel operators with the intent to build a new state. Our interviews also confirm data collected by New York Times reporter Rukmini Callimachi. Together, these three sources utilized and analyzed here shed light on the highly subversive activities undertaken by the Emni on behalf of the 'Islamic State', also outlining ISIS's aspirations to attack the West.

http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/573/html

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The Reina Nightclub Attack and the Islamic State Threat to Turkey

CTC Sentinel, 2017

Abstract: The Reina nightclub attack in Istanbul on New Year’s Eve made clear the immense scale o... more Abstract: The Reina nightclub attack in Istanbul on New Year’s Eve made clear the immense scale of the Islamic State threat to Turkey. Investigations have shed new light on the group’s command and control over sleeper operatives in Turkey and the large network of clandestine cells and logistical and financial support elements it has set up to sustain terrorist activity. Turkish government complacency has allowed the threat to grow, as have purges of experienced counterterrorism professionals, including those after last year’s failed coup. As the Islamic State shows signs of crumbling in Syria and Iraq, Turkey now faces a nightmare scenario of a mass influx of Islamic State fighters into its territory.

https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/the-reina-nightclub-attack-and-the-islamic-state-threat-to-turkey

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Ramadan Reflections at DeSales

“There’s hidden sweetness in the stomach’s emptiness… A table descends to your tent, Jesus’s tabl... more “There’s hidden sweetness in the stomach’s emptiness…
A table descends to your tent, Jesus’s table.
Expect to see it, when you fast, this table spreads with other food better than the broth of cabbages.” — Mevlana J. Rumi (1207 – 1273)

Dr Ahmet Yayla
Dr. Ahmet Yayla, Assistant Professor; Director, Center for Homeland Security

The month of Ramadan, a holy month for Muslims comparable to the season of Lent, is a time of devotion to God through fasting, spiritual and physical cleansing, self-discipline, and charity.

Nevertheless, these struggles are part of the religion, too. As the Prophet Muhammad said: “If you hear of an outbreak of plague in a land, do not enter it; but if the plague breaks out in a place while you are in it, do not leave that place.”

Even while facing a difficult situation like the coronavirus pandemic, there should always be a positive side, reminding us to once again protect and care for ourselves, communities, and one another.

On this occasion, let’s pray for our families, the DeSales community, our nation, and humanity to seek refuge in God from the worst of diseases, and do our best to extend our hands to the needy with the spirit of Ramadan.

http://wp.desales.edu/dsu-daily/2020/05/04/ramadan-reflections-at-desales-dr-ahmet-yayla/?utm_source=DSU+DAILY+MASTER+LIST+2019-2020&utm_campaign=1c4a41ae43-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_05_28_12_28_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_936886a251-1c4a41ae43-105227825

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Turkish ISIS and AQ Foreign Fighters: Reconciling the Numbers and Perception of the Terrorism Threat

Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 2019

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IHH: The Nonprofit Face of Jihadism

ICT, the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, 2019

Born of war and its exigencies, the Anatolia-based Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and H... more Born of war and its exigencies, the Anatolia-based Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH) has been shaped by the pressures of war to take sides in the fratricidal conflicts to which it has been drawn since its formation in the Balkans wars of the early 1990s, the Iraq war, the conflict in Israel, and the continuing war against the Islamic State. Yet war may have had a compromising effect too upon self-understanding of the Turkish founders and administrators as well, since as Philip Snowden aptly observed, “Truth is the first casualty of war.” In that sense, IHH is as complex and conflicted as any organization produced by Turkish civilization in the late Twentieth Century. No observer can doubt its noble intents, its humane services to the hapless victims of war, and the wounded survivors of conflict. Its reach is vast over five continents, and its respect at the United Nations is evinced by its high status. By the same measure, its dual role in the cause of jihadism whether by the instrumentality of its Sunni variation in al-Qaeda, or Islamic State, or its collaboration with the Shia variation in Tehran, cannot be ignored. The evidence cited in the foregoing study should give the student of counterterrorism or the foreign policy practitioner pause before taking the noble self-understanding of IHH at face value.

The IHH has found itself fulfilling the needs of al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the government of President Tayyip Erdogan, who himself has played a dual role in the fight against terrorism in Syria and Iraq. The scope of the IHH’s activities cannot be explained simply by its declared budget and resources. The IHH has served as a key humanitarian player in the Middle East region, collaborating with internationally recognized NGOs or the United Nations, yet without doubt – and despite public denials -- also serving as an ideological enabler of terrorist organizations. It is time to halt the illicit activities and connections of the IHH by listing it as a terrorist entity until at least the organization clearly and openly disconnects itself from terrorist groups and stops acting as an intermediary for jihadists.

https://www.ict.org.il/Article/2397/IHH#gsc.tab=0

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Eyewitness Accounts from Recent Defectors from Islamic State: Why They Joined, What They Saw, Why They Quit

by Anne Speckhard and Ahmet S Yayla

This Research Note reports on preliminary results of the Islamic State Interviews Project, based ... more This Research Note reports on preliminary results of the Islamic State Interviews Project, based here on a sample of thirteen Syrian IS defectors who spoke on life inside the “Islamic State”(IS). A fuller and more systematic account will be published in early 2016 in book form. According to what we learned, all IS cadres undergo Shariah training in which they are imbued with a Takfiri ideology that allows them to deem all others, including Muslims, who disagree with IS’ extreme ideology, as apostates who should be killed. Despite this indoctrination, all of our informants (all Syrians) experienced their Shariah trainers as a positive influence since they allowed them to deepen their own religious understanding. In this sense, these disengaged defectors remained radicalized “true believers”. Following compulsory military training courses on weapons, explosives and physical fitness, they were sentto the front. Syrians who join IS are rewarded with salaried jobs which for young men translates into the ability to marry and for young women the money allows them to save their families from literal starvation. Foreign fighters receive additional rewards: wives, sexual slaves, and sometimes homes and cars. Daily life
is punctuated by brutal practices – including floggings, torture and beheadings. Defections were the result of exposure to extreme brutality, disgust over the slave trade, observations of deep hypocrisy–a total mismatch between the words and deeds of IS. Charges of corruption and complaints about battlefield decisions that produced unnecessary deaths in their own ranks were also causes of disillusionment . Our informants all had come to hate IS and warn others not to join what they gradually came to see as a totally disappointing, ruthless and un-Islamic organization.

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Book review: 'Militant Islam’ vs. ‘Islamic Militancy’? Religion, Violence, Category Formation and Applied Research. Contested Fields in the Discourses of Scholarship

Perspectives on Terrorism, 2020

Klaus Hock & Nina Käsehage (Eds.).’ Militant Islam’ vs. ‘Islamic Militancy’? Religion, Violence,... more Klaus Hock & Nina Käsehage (Eds.).’ Militant Islam’ vs. ‘Islamic Militancy’? Religion, Violence, Category Formation and Applied Research. Contested Fields in the Discourses of Scholarship.

(Zürich: LIT Verlag, 2020), 272 pp., US $ 52.95 [Paperback], ISBN: 978-3-6439-1275-6. Reviewed by Ahmet S. Yayla

‘Militant Islam’ vs. ‘Islamic Militancy’ focuses on overlooked and understudied questions of radical Islamic movements and the distinctive factors of such groups by considering theoretical and practical frameworks. Throughout this edited volume, the authors focus their analyses on discourses on radical Islam, political Islam, Islamic extremism, and religious violence. They do so by asking questions about what people are discussing when they refer to Salafism, Jihadism, and Islamic terrorism in order to try to overcome discrepancies in these terminologies.

https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/binaries/content/assets/customsites/perspectives-on-terrorism/2020/issue-3/yayla.pdf

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The Current Situation of the PKK

A Sociological Profile of the Families Suffered from Terrorism: Sanliurfa Field Case

ISIS IN TURKEY

Per Concordiam, 2017

The Reina nightclub attack, which occurred in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2017 in Istanbul,... more The Reina nightclub attack, which occurred in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2017 in Istanbul, Turkey, and the counterterrorism operations after the attack provide valuable security lessons. The attacker, Abdulkadir Masharipov, spent a year in a sleeper cell in Konya, Turkey, before receiving orders from his emir in Raqqa, Syria, using the Telegram app. He not only carried out an attack in the name of ISIS, killing 39 people and wounding many others, but also dodged police scrutiny at the scene by pretending to be one of the victims. ISIS has a heavy presence in Turkey, with several established cells and safe havens, and it has been openly threatening Turkey since the al-Bab military campaign in Syria. Turkey is a bridge between the East and West, and the danger of Turkey becoming the gateway for European terrorist activity cannot be ignored. With ISIS starting to lose vast territories in Syria and Iraq, Turkey’s capacity to counter terrorist threats and stem terrorist activity within its borders is critical for global security.

http://perconcordiam.com/isis-in-turkey/

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Turkey’s Erdogan Has Grand Plans for al Qaeda’s Syrian Spin-Off

The Daily Beast, 2018

Turkish President Erdogan cut a deal last month with Russia to stop a massacre in northern Syria,... more Turkish President Erdogan cut a deal last month with Russia to stop a massacre in northern Syria, but the story doesn’t end there. Indeed, it’s just beginning.

Ahmet Yayla
10.08.18 5:20 AM ET
To forestall what promised to be a truly terrible massacre by the Syrian regime and Russian airpower last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cut a deal.

The “Memorandum of Stabilization of the Situation in the Idlib De-escalation Area,” as it is called, was signed with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sept. 17, and had several provisions, including a wide buffer zone around the city of Idlib. But the heart of it was a promise by Erdogan to withdraw “all radical terrorist groups” holed up there, including some 10,000 in a group formerly associated with al Qaeda that now uses the name Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/turkeys-erdogan-has-grand-plans-for-al-qaedas-syrian-spin-off?ref=scroll

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Turkey's drift from the West under Erdoğan

Ahval

The United States has suspended Turkey’s participation in the programme to build and fly the late... more The United States has suspended Turkey’s participation in the programme to build and fly the latest generation F-35 fighter jets and could impose economic sanctions on top, but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has refused to back down and abandon the purchase of Russian S-400 missiles.

“Regardless of Turkey's political and military alliances with the West, we continue to receive the biggest threats from the West; be they political, economic, cultural, or by all other means," he told a select group of journalists in Istanbul two weeks ago after the delivery of the first S-400 components.

Such rhetoric from the leader of a NATO country might be regarded as awkward by many, though it is unsurprising for several reasons.

While opposition wins at local elections in March and June could be seen as a sign of democratic overhaul, one should not be naïve enough to think Erdoğan would leave power through democratic means.

https://ahvalnews-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/ahvalnews.com/turkey-west/turkeys-drift-west-under-erdogan?amp

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To Truly Fight Terror, Counter Salafist Jihadist Ideology First

Homeland Security Today, 2018

Now that the Islamic State has fallen and lost the battle on the ground, it is time to seriously ... more Now that the Islamic State has fallen and lost the battle on the ground, it is time to seriously consider the next steps to win the fight against terrorism in the long run. A recent report by the Soufan Center has traced back 5,600 ISIS foreign fighters who returned home. While the returning foreign fighters may not try to carry out attacks immediately, there is no doubt that many of them will certainly be the seeds of future recruits or act as organizers and facilitators in the name of ISIS.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, during his testimony at a congressional hearing on the worldwide threat assessment of the U.S. intelligence community on March 6, stated that “ISIS almost certainly will continue to give priority to transnational terrorist attacks. Its leadership probably assesses that, if ISIS-linked attacks continue to dominate public discourse, the group’s narrative will be buoyed.”

Yes, it is almost impossible to counter every terrorist attack, particularly if carried out by the terrorists with no direct connections to known terrorist members. However, it is essential we understand that if we cannot neutralize or counter the ideology behind these attacks, which is Salafist jihadism stemming from Wahhabism, there will always be new attacks regardless of the security precautions we take.

https://www.hstoday.us/subject-matter-areas/counterterrorism/to-truly-fight-terror-counter-salafist-jihadis-ideology-first/

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A Case Study of Leftist Terrorism in Turkey

Change in government has characterized the development of most nations. Sometimes this change has... more Change in government has characterized the development of most nations. Sometimes this change has been marked by continued evolution, in a peaceful attempt to move forward. Other times, change has been fraught with violent revolution and terrorism. This process has been the subject of much debate by political scientists and economic philosophers. Today, Turkey suffers from continued threats to its government through violent acts of terrorism conducted by various groups, expressing ideologies of leftist and rightist organizations, as well as ethnic and religious extremists. This thesis examines DHKP/C as the primary leftist revolutionary group effecting Turkey, exploring its historical background in Europe and the Middle East, as well as its philosophical link to Marxism. Further, this treatise discusses the implication of revolution and terrorism expressed by DHKP/C; and explores innovative and peaceful solutions, strategies, and techniques to be used by the police forces of Turkey in combating this group

Defected from ISIS or Simply Returned, and for How Long? - Challenges for the West in Dealing with Returning Foreign Fighters

Many of the 38,000 foreign fighters ISIS has managed to attract to Syria and Iraq will return hom... more Many of the 38,000 foreign fighters ISIS has managed to attract to Syria and Iraq will return home. As increasing numbers of ISIS cadres flee the battlefield, some as defectors and others as returnees still aligned with ISIS’ goals and ideology, the challenges for the West will be how to identify and sort out true defectors from returnees, and determine if they are at risk to support again or rejoin a terrorist group. In this context, the authors of the article stress that it will be incumbent on Western states to find adequate ways of determining who among returnees is a security risk at present, who may become one in the future, specifically by returning their allegiance to this violent group, and who can be safely reintegrated into society for the long term. The authors also highlight important policy alternatives for dealing with returning foreign fighters who will continue to pose both an immediate security threat and a long-term challenge.

Ahmet S Yayla

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