Mina Al-Lami

2) The brief Turkey vid is part of IS’ vid series showing militants from IS branches around the world affirming their allegiance to the group & vowing to fight on, to prove their commitment to IS despite its territorial losses

3) The Turkey vid, like the others in the series, reiterates loyalty to Baghdadi & threatens the local gov, in this case Erdogan and his government, with attacks

4) So far IS has put out a total of 8 such videos, featuring IS militants in Libya; Azerbaijan (1st time); India, Pakistan, Afghanistan & Iran (all 4 under Khorasan); “West Africa", Sinai in Egypt, “East Asia" and the Caucasus.

5) Up to now there have been no similar videos from Syria or Iraq, possibly bec the series is partly meant to show solidarity with fighters in those two countries given the losses they suffered

6) It remains to be seen if the IS Turkey “branch” is just a propaganda stunt or more. IS last claimed an attack in the county in 2017.

Up to early 2016, IS was criticized by its jihadist rivals for failing to target Turkish interests, with some accusing the group of having a tacit agreement not to harm Turkey.

This was partly based on IS’s release of the diplomatic hostages in Mosul in 2014, contrary to its killing of other hostages, and its failure to demolish a revered Ottoman shrine in northern Syria, unlike its action against similar “idolatrous sites” in both Iraq and Syria.

By late 2016, after Turkey had properly joined the anti-IS coalition and was bombing IS in al-Bab (N. Syria), IS significantly stepped up its rhetoric against Turkey, esp after IS leader Baghdadi explicitly called for attacks in the country for the first time.