Centre for Turkey Studies Attends ‘Global Turkey in Europe’ Conference
December 2012
London based Centre for Turkey Studies attended the ‘Global Turkey in Europe’ conference jointly organised by many international organizations.
A number of institutions including Stiftung Mercator from Germany, Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAL) from Italy and Istanbul Policy Centre (IPC) from Turkey involved in the organisation of the conference which was held in German Marshall Fund’s (GMF) Brussels Office. The director of the Centre for Turkey Studies, Ibrahim Dogus, attending the conference for the first time informed the participants of the centre’s work.
The first session’s topic was ‘Democracy in Turkey in the light of a new constitution’ which was chaired by Anne Duncker. The keynote speakers were the director of Istanbul Policy Forum Professor Fuat Keyman, Senem Aydın of Istanbul Bilgi University, Professor Ergun Ozbudun of Istanbul Sehir University and Dilek Kurban of TESEV. Another debate in the first session was about the impact of the European economic crisis on Turkey. The debate was chaired by the director of the German Marshall Fund, Ian Lesser and the speakers were Kemal Dervis and the director of the Centre for European Policy Studies, Daniel Gross.
The last session of the conference in Brussels discussed the Turkish foreign policy and the relations with Europe. Professor Fuat Keyman chaired the debate and Dimitar Bechev of European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), Michael Leigh of GMF, Michael Emerson of CEPS and Suat Kiniklioğlu of Ankara based STRATIM contributed in the discussion with speeches.
The director of the Centre for Turkey Studies, Ibrahim Dogus, spoke about the conference and the centre’s work. He stated that the Centre for Turkey Studies has become known in the international arena thanks to its successful events and activities and that the centre has achieved its targets. Dogus added that the centre recently attended a significant conference organized by the European Commission in Barcelona and that it was a pleasure to have attended such an important conference this time in Brussels.