Centre for Turkey Studies and Institute for Strategic Dialogue Joint Forum
‘TALKING TURKEY: CAN EUROPE GET ON THE SAME PAGE?’
April 2012
Institute for Strategic Dialogue
The Centre for Turkey Studies organised a round table discussion in collaboration with the ISD at the ISD offices in London, Mayfair. The participants were Jonathan Powell, former Downing Street Chief of Staff; Sasha Havlicek, Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD); Ivan Krastev, ISD Senior Adviser; Ann Wyman, Senior Adviser at Gatehouse and Cengiz Candar, veteran journalist and author from Turkey.
The invitation-only round table explored how the UK and Europe might engage more coherently and strategically with Turkey beyond the parameters of the stalled EU accession process.
Some of the specific issues discussed focused on:
- What a rising Turkey brings to the table from an economic and geostrategic perspective and for Europe;
- Turkey’s perspective on the West in light of its geostrategic rise in the Middle East and its growing economic clout vis-à-vis Europe;
- The prospects for intra-European consensus on strategic engagement with Turkey;
- The major challenges that need to be addressed within Europe and Turkey respectively in order to create a more stable strategic relationship;
- The case for a new transatlantic dialogue with Turkey that moves beyond EU accession and NATO engagement.
The other participants of the round table included Dr. Tunc Aybak of Middlesex University; Katrin Bennhold of International Herald Tribune; Feryal Smith of Hackney City Council; Tina Fordham, Citigroup Director of Political Risk; Jordana Friedman, Deputy Director, Institute for Strategic Dialogue; Baroness Meral Ece, House of Lords; Jonathan Fryer, Lecturer at SOAS University; Stanley Johnson, retired politician; Philip Stephen, Assistant Editor at the Financial Times and Mustafa Topkaya, London-based entrepreneur.