Murat Somer is a Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Koç University Istanbul: http://home.ku.edu.tr/~musomer/ . His research on polarization, democracy, political religion and secularity, ethnic conflicts, political Islam, and the Kurdish question have been published in more than forty books, book volumes and journals. He held visiting positions and gave lectures at Princeton, Stockholm and Harvard Universities among others. He has been a frequent contributor to Turkish and international media such as CNN Türk, Al Jazeera, Euronews, and T24 making efforts to overcome polarization and contribute to truth-based public discourse, peace and democracy. His research on secular and religious elite values was awarded a Sabancı-Brookings Research Award in 2009 and his book on “the Turkish and Kurdish Question” won the Sedat Simavi Social Sciences Prize in 2015. He is the coeditor of two special volumes on polarization, populism and democracy in American Behavioral Scientist (2018) and the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences (2019).