Assoc. Prof. Selim Öztürk earned his PhD in Area Studies from Middle East Technical University in 2018. His doctoral research examined the role of Salafi thought in the historical formation of the Saudi states and the emergence of the Afghan Taliban. From 2018 to 2021, he was a faculty member at the Security Sciences Institute of the Turkish National Police Academy, where he taught courses on international security, international relations, Middle Eastern history and politics, armed non-state actors, radicalization, and terrorism.
From 2021 to 2024, he served as Cultural Attaché at the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv, where he was stationed during the October 7 war in his final year of service. He speaks Arabic and Hebrew. He is the author of two books: Taliban and Islamic State: Terrorists or State Buildersand Arab Nationalism Embedded in Salafism: The Arabs’ Challenge. He currently serves as an adviser in the Office of the Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism in Ankara while continuing his academic research.