1:00-2:00pm, Tuesday 9th February 2010
Committee Room 5, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
To attend, please RSVP to helen.norbury@henryjacksonsociety.org
CLICK HERE FOR A WRITE-UP OF THIS EVENT
In recent years Turkey had appeared to be making progress in its application for EU membership, reform of its economic, social and political sectors, as well as by increasing engagement on a whole range of ongoing diplomatic problems, such as Cyprus, northern Iraq and the Middle East peace process. But recently, serious questions have emerged over the direction of Turkish domestic and external policy under Erdogan's and Davutoðlu's AKP. Arguably, the debates are symptomatic of the long standing, foundational Turkish struggle between the Kemalist ideals traditionally associated with the army and Turkey's Islamic identity, as represented by the current government - but other factors require examination also.
By kind invitation of Bob Laxton MP, the Henry Jackson Society and the All-Party British-Turkish Parliamentary Group are pleased to be able to invite you to a discussion with Ziya Meral, an expert on Turkish politics and society as well as human rights in the Middle East and the Islamic World.
Mr Meral will be offering an overview of the current political tensions in the country and will seek to answer the most common questions asked about Turkey: Is Turkey on the brink of an Islamist take over? Is the country turning her face away from the EU and West towards the Middle East and Islamic world? Why does Turkey rank as one of the most anti-American and anti-Christian countries in the world in global attitudes surveys even though it has the smallest portion of Christians in the world, is a close ally of the USA, and is attempting to enter the EU? Has the AKP government failed in its attempts to solve the Kurdish problem and is Turkey on the brink of a Kurdish intifada? Can the ongoing court cases against retired armed forces officers and constant tensions of the government with the Army be seen as maturation of democracy?
TIME: 1:00-2:00pm
DATE: Tuesday 9th February 2010
VENUE: Committee Room 5, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
To attend, please RSVP to helen.norbury@henryjacksonsociety.org
Ziya Meral is a London based Turkish analyst and researcher and a PhD candidate in Political Science at the University of Cambridge. He has published broadly in Turkish and English on a diverse range of topics from Turkish and Middle Eastern politics to Islam, human rights, literature and philosophy. As an expert on human rights issues in the Middle East and the Islamic world, he has regularly briefed Foreign Office and US Department of State, and spoke at conferences, events, briefings and consultancies at the Houses of Parliament and the US Congress. Ziya Meral is widely respected for his non-partisan analysis and in depth in field research experience in various countries in the Middle East.