SETA PANEL DISCUSSION    Chair:     Talip Küçükcan, SETA    Panelists:    Taha Özhan, SETA     İhsan Dağı, METU    Mustafa Akyol, Star Newspaper  Tarih: May 26, 2011 Thursday  Saat: 15.00-17.00  Yer: SETA, Ankara

Lebanon is a microcosm of Middle Eastern conflicts, and it has often turned into a battlefield of conflicting regional and international actors.

Israel so preoccupied with who should stay in power in Turkey, that they cannot read what is really happening in Turkish domestic politics.

SETA PUBLIC LECTURE Chair:       İhsan Dağı, METU Speaker:       Roger Cohen Date: October 21, 2010 Thursday Time: 16.00 Venue: SETA Foundation, Ankara

SETA PUBLIC LECTURE     Ahmet Kuru     Assistant Professor of Political Science, San Diego State University     Date: June 3, 2010 Thursday Time: 16.00 – 18.00 Venue: SETA, Ankara

SETA PUBLIC LECTURE     Professor Robert W. Hefner     Director, Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs, Boston University   Date: May 11, 2010 Tuesday Time: 16.00 - 18.00 Venue: SETA, Ankara

On July 13, 2009, an intergovernmental accord on the proposed Nabucco gas pipeline was signed. The 3.300 kilometer long pipeline will transport Caspian, Iraqi and likely Iranian gas in the future depending on the changing situation and its relationship with the USA, and to a lesser extent Egyptian natural gas resources, via Turkey to Austria. The Turkish leg of the pipeline will be 2000 kilometers long.Given that the pipeline is designed to export non-Russian Caspian resources – Azeri, Kazakh, and Turkmeni - to European markets, thereby, diversifying energy supplies for western energy markets, several European states and the US have supported this project. The project is planned to become operational in 2014 with an estimated cost of 7.9 billion euros (10.6 billion dollars). In addition to enhancing its energy corridor role, the pipeline will provide significant benefits to Turkey in terms of revenues, employment, etc.

There has been a revival in Turkey’s relation with Africa after 1998. Initially this revival came as a passive attempt, but after 2005 it became an offensive interest in developing relations with the continent. The recent Turkey-Africa Cooperation Summit marks the latest stage in Turkey’s keen interest in developing relations with Africa, and should be seen as a turning point if it is followed with concrete projects in political and economic fields. The key challenge, however, lies in the mutual lack of knowledge and familiarity between the two regions, coupled with general uncertainty regarding how to further relations.

Currently, GAP is a regional development project that covers nine southeastern provinces extending over the wide plains in the basins of the lower Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Political and economical instability in Turkey in the 1980s diverted attention from the GAP Project and led to consecutive failures in meeting official targets for its progress within the initial time framework. Within the last five years,  

The revamped Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) was launched by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Diyarbakır last week in the company of 12 of his ministers, 75 deputies and an army of bureaucrats. In the biggest sports stadium in Diyarbakır (which only hosts 1,300 people), he spoke for two hours about the new program and how it will change the socioeconomic structure of the region.

The escalation in attacks by the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) on Turkish troops and civilians has brought Turkey to the brink of war with the Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, has declared that unless action is taken against the PKK, Turkey will act unilaterally. Despite the intensifying rhetoric, however, the crisis may be an opportunity to find a lasting solution to the Kurdish problem in Turkey and the region

SETA CONFERENCE By  Kim Beng Phar  Visiting Fellow, Waseda University, Organization of Asian Studies Date: August 27, 2007 Monday Time: 17.00 - 19.00 Venue: SETA Foundation, Ankara

The deadlock created by the discussions on judicial independence and impartiality during the presidential election process and the extension of the discussions to the realm of fundamental rights and freedoms with a particular reference to the headscarf issue drew attention to what policy the AK Party would pursue to address these issues in the new term.  

“Russia is the most reliable partner of the Islamic world and the most faithful defender of its interests,” Russian President Viladimir Putin said in 2005 in Chechnya’s capital of Grozny. Putin made this statement in the first session of the local parliament in Grozny. Given the place and its brutal history, what the Russian president has said is seriously ironic. But the story does not stop here.Russia’s desire to straighten its record with the Muslim world has gained visible momentum in the last few years. In 2005, Russia was granted observer status at the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the largest international organization in the Islamic world, representing 57 Muslim countries.

1-2 July, 2006 Ceylan Intercontinental Hotel, Istanbul / TURKEY

There is a growing Muslim population in the very heart of Europe, where states are largely secular. Secularized European social life, political culture and the public sphere are all facing an enormous challenge of accommodating a relatively religious Muslim citizens coming from different Muslim countries. Despite settling in Europe and getting socialized here, many Muslims attach great importance to their sacred and religious values, trying to express their demands and identities in the public sphere.