Dr. Yaşar Aydın is a researcher at the Centre for Applied Turkey Studies (CATS) at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin. Born on May 22, 1971, in Turkey, he moved to Germany with his family at the age of four and is now a German citizen. He studied sociology and economics at the Universities of Hamburg and Lancaster and earned his PhD from the University of Hamburg. His research focuses on international relations, geopolitics, the Turkish economy and foreign policy, nationalism, migration, and diaspora studies. In addition to numerous academic publications, he is the author of three books and regularly contributes commentary to both German and Turkish newspapers.