Turkey’s foreign policy and the Arab Spring turned out to be as important in determining the political agenda for 2011 as the June 12 elections. Turkey’s role in the spreading political movements from North Africa to the Middle East surpassed its previous involvement in the area.

For the PKK, the process can only go from the initial “Defeat in the 1990s” to the “Second Defeat” in the 2010s.

Turkey’s long-standing Kurdish issue was also mentioned in the commentaries as a major issue that awaited a comprehensive solution.

 SETA PANEL DISCUSSION  Chair:     Taha Özhan, SETA    Panelists:     Ali Çarkoğlu, Sabancı Univ.       Cengiz Çandar, Radikal     Yavuz Baydar, Sabah  Date: June 15, 2011 Wednesday  Time: 14.00-16.00  Venue: SETA, Ankara   

SETA CONFERENCE Chair:     Taha Özhan, SETA Konuşmacılar:     İhsan Dağı, METU     Ertan Aydın, Pollmark     Date: September 22, 2010 Wednesday Time: 14.00 – 15.30 Venue: SETA Foundation, ANKARA

SETA D.C. PANEL   Moderator:     Kadir Üstün     Doctoral Candidate at Columbia University   Speakers:     Taha Özhan     Director-General of the SETA Foundation     Ömer Taşpınar     Brookings Institution Date: December 9, 2009   Venue: SETA D.C. 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite #1106 Washington, D.C.  

The survey “Turkey's Perception of the Kurdish Issue,” jointly conducted by the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) and PollMark, has yielded quite important sociological findings on the relations between Turks and Kurds.  The research was undertaken to reveal the content and the grounds of the social relations between the two communities, the current phase of social integration and whether terror and violence have caused lack of trust and confidence between these social groups. The survey shows that the will and desire for coexistence transcends ideological, ethnic and political identities. The research points out that despite the lengthy period of violence and terror, political polemics and crises, there is still no environment of distrust or enmity between Turks and Kurds and that the country is not threatened by the danger of ethnic violence over Turkishness or Kurdishness.

Less than one week ahead of the US presidential election, Turkish-US relations and Turkey's role in its neighboring regions were the subject of a one-day conference organized by the SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research and the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.

A Brookings-SETA Policy Conference on Turkey University of California, Washington Center 1608 Rhode Island Ave, NW Tuesday, October 28, 2008

First it was a devastating attack in Dağlıca. Now it is Aktütün. And countless other attacks occurred in between. Outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorism is back.

Some analysts interpreted the decision of the Constitutional Court as heralding a long dull moment for Turkey. A closure case against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) had the potential to create the biggest political crisis in domestic Turkish politics in recent years.

The decision by the Turkish Constitutional Court to reject the closure case against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) opens a new chapter in the history of Turkish democracy.

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.

Doing the right thing at the right time is essential for finding a comprehensive solution to the Kurdish issue. Half-baked measures will not produce concrete results.

The debate over lifting the headscarf ban has turned into a larger debate about freedoms in Turkey. While the vast majority of Turks support the expansion of civil liberties, there seems to be a fundamental disagreement as to how freedoms should be prioritized. The problem with this is that until and unless the question of freedoms is taken as a whole, there will be no guarantee for civil liberties in Turkey.

Last week Turkey witnessed a first. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan broke his fast with 1,000 Alevis in Ankara. The fast was in observance of the beginning of the month of Muharram.