Conference Program
Stockholm, November 5, 2009
Location: Institute for Security and Development Policy
Västra Finnbodavägen 2, Henriksdal, Stockholm

Turkey’s foreign policy has undergone momentous changes in the past two decades. The end of the Cold War and integration with Europe changed Turkey’s role in regional and world affairs; the coming to power of the AKP infused new thinking into foreign policy, notably a resurgence of interest in the Middle East. What do these changes imply? Do they make Turkey ever more crucial to the West, or are they driving Turkey away from Europe? What will the pertain for Turkey’s regional role and its Euro-Atlantic alliance?

Thursday, November 5

09:00                    Introduction to the Conference

Svante E. Cornell, Research Director
                            
09:15                    Panel 1: Foreign Policy Visions in Turkish Politics

Yusuf Ziya Irbeç, MP, Justice and Development Party

Onur Öymen, MP, Republican People’s Party

Y. Tuğrul Türkeş, MP, Nationalist Movement Party

10:45                    Coffee

11:00                    Panel 2: Turkey and the West

Hüseyin Bağcı, Middle East Technical University

Soner Çağaptay, Washington Institute For Near East Studies

C. Thomas Gür, Senior Fellow, Institute for Security and Development Policy
                            
12:30                    Lunch

13:30                    Panel 3: Turkey’s Regional Role: Former Soviet Union and Middle East

Nigar Göksel, Senior Analyst, ESI (confirmed)

Gareth Jenkins, Senior Associate, CACI-SRSP Joint Center (confirmed)

Avinoam Idan, Research Fellow, Haifa University (confirmed) 

15:00                    Conclusion
                            
S. Frederick Starr, Chairman, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program