Syria and Israel are two semi-states which base their identities on pretended hostility.

Those who insisted that al-Assad was there to stay for a long time, after a bomb went off in Damascus, moved onto the second propaganda phase.

The final leg of support for the Syrian Ba’ath regime’s geopolitical comfort zone was the political climate generated by the other dictatorships in the area.

Syria has become one of the few friends Iran has left, after it was blatantly sanctioned by the West, the U.S and other states in the region after the Islamic revolution.

The wave of uprisings that spread through North Africa, and the Middle East have brought our region to an interesting junction in terms of the proxy wars.

Relations with the region have been multi-faceted, encompassing diplomatic, economic and civil society dimensions since 2002.

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

Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed in Ankara that Hosni Mubarak should listen to the demands of the Egyptian people.

Turkey’s mediation efforts in the most recent political crisis in Lebanon in January 2011 are driven by the assessment that a possible conflict would directly threaten Turkey’s interests.

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

Since September 11, 2001, America's foreign policy and the future of the global system have occupied a central place in current international affairs debates. The neocon arguments became increasingly influential during the last years of the Clinton administration and found resonance in the Bush administration. In the aftermath of the 9/11 events, both the ideological arguments and the excuses were in place for the realization of the neocon project. This period witnessed the deterioration of already weakened international institutions and the "global order." The end results were, among other things, the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the tacit support for the Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Gaza. The overall political cost of all these policies was roundly criticized by many and analyzed as the paramount example of American "unilateralism."

SETA PANEL DISCUSSION Chair:       Bulent Aras, Bulent ARAS, SETA, Coordinator, Foreign Policy Studies Panelists:        Robert Malley, International Crisis Group, Middle East and North Africa Program Director     Joost Hiltermann, International Crisis Group, Deputy Program Director, Middle East and North Africa     Peter Harling, International Crisis Group, Project Director (Iraq, Lebanon and Syria) Date: March 12, 2010 Friday Time: 13.00 – 14.15 Venue: SETA Foundation, Ankara

All attention in the region is on Iran again. The new incentive package proposed by the European Union does not seem to have persuaded Tehran.

With the court case against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) officially started, Turkey has entered a new period of political uncertainty.

Turkish President Abdullah Gül’s visit to the White House, his first such visit to the US as president and the first visit by a Turkish president in 11 years, comes at a time when US-Turkish relations have taken a new turn.