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A Turkish Islamist militant who appeared in a video brandishing a decapitated head turned out to be an official of the youth branch of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) before joining the jihadist cause in Syria.

Emrah Çelik (born April 5, 1987), a member of the AKP youth branch in the Kapaklı district of northwestern Tekirdağ province, was seen posing in both a video and still shots while holding a severed head in his hand. The recording shows him saying that the victory belongs to Islamist jihadists and that whoever takes on Islam’s soldiers would share the same fate as the severed head, which he said belonged to a soldier in the Syrian regime forces. In the end he says victory belongs to Islam while raising a single index finger, similar to a gesture used by militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Çelik served as the deputy chairman of the AKP youth branch in a district located on the European side of Turkey before joining jihadist groups fighting in the Turkmen area of northern Syria, on October 10, 2015. He is originally from the eastern province Erzincan but maintains a residence in Tekirdağ. Supreme Court of Appeals Chief Prosecutor’s Office records show he is still a member of the AKP.
According to his own statement Çelik served in the 2nd Coastal Division stationed in the Turkmen mountains and served under the command of Bashar Molla.