İbrahim Kalın

İbrahim Kalın — Biography

İbrahim Kalın was born on 15 September 1971 in Istanbul and is a Turkish bureaucrat and academic. After beginning his higher education at Istanbul University, he completed his doctorate in Islamic philosophy at George Washington University under Seyyed Hossein Nasr, later becoming the founding coordinator of the Office of Public Diplomacy.

Between 2014 and 2023 he served, with ambassadorial rank, as presidential spokesperson, while also acting as deputy chairman of the Council of Security and Foreign Policy and as a senior presidential advisor; he is a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations. In 2025 he was ranked 23rd on The Muslim 500 list of the world's most influential Muslims.

On 5 June 2023 President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appointed Kalın as director of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), a post he continues to hold. During 2026 he has held talks with the President of Iraq on security and cooperation, visited Kirkuk, met with Hamas's new leadership, and taken an active role in the initiative known as the "terror-free Turkey" process.