Recent Arab revolutions have brought both opportunities and challenges to Turkish foreign policy. 

On January 14, 2011, Ben Ali fled Tunisia after 23 years in power, signaling the end of the distorted regional order in the Middle East and North Africa.

In the past decade, Turkey moved towards more domestic democracy - while its neighbourhood changed in fundamental ways.

 SETA-DC PANEL DISCUSSION  Chair:     Kadir Ustun, SETA-DC   Speakers: Daniel Levy, New America Fnd. Stevn A. Cook, Council on F.R. Erol Cebeci,SETA-DC  Date: September 19, 2011 Monday  Venue: SETA-DC, Washington

Once Turkey considers and comes to terms with the challenge of formulating a new political language, it can rise to the level it aspires to as a new actor in a new region and in a new global order.

Turkey's foreign minister talks about  how the region has rediscovered its sense of possessing a common destiny.  

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.

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

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

It was a disappointing moment for Turks to learn that the foreign affairs committee of the US House of Representatives has narrowly voted to approve a resolution describing the massacre of more than a million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during the first world war as genocide. Turkey recalled its newly appointed ambassador to Washington, Namık Tan, for consultation a few minutes after the vote. It is no secret that there is an "Armenian question" in Turkish-American relations, which has resulted in a seasonal oscillation in bilateral relations around this time of year for many years.

Today, genetically modified organism (GMO) foods are front and center in the discussion on food sustainability. While some allege that interfering in the genetic makeup of food items such as corn and wheat will be a hazard to human health and jeopardize the future of humankind, others view GMO foods as a ray of hope for impoverished nations. Claims that the world’s population is growing rapidly and that the world’s current food stock will not be able to meet the demands of this new population also affect the debate. Undoubtedly poverty and hunger are significant and life-threatening issues for human beings, and history provides evidence that starvation has wiped out entire generations, permanently transforming the demographic makeup of the earth.

Iraq is like a miniature of the Middle East with its population structure and social characteristics. Each domestic actor in Iraq has relations with ethnic and religious groups in the neighboring countries.