DATE: Monday 10th October 2011

TIME: 7.00-9.00pm

VENUE: Committee Room 6, House of Commons, SW1A 0AA 

(please use Cromwell Green Visitors Entrance, see map attached)

This event is now full

Speakers:

• Lord Alderdice, former Leader Alliance Party
• Jonathan Fryer, SOAS
• Firdevs Robinson, formerly BBC World Service

Chair: Adam Hug, Policy Director, Foreign Policy Centre

Introduction: Nick De Bois MP, Enfield North 

The Centre for Turkey Studies and Development (CTSD) and the Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) are please to host a Westminster seminar to discuss the current political situation in Turkey at the start of the AKP third term. It will examine both the progress Turkey has made in recent years and the challenges it still faces, particularly on media freedom and minority rights. With plans to change the Turkish Constitution high up the political agenda it is an important time for a UK audience to examine what can be done both in Turkey and abroad to strengthen the process of democratisation and political reform in this growing global power.

Event is free and open to all. For more information please contact Ibrahim Dogus of CTSD on 02083412021

If you would like to attend, please RSVP by email to:

events@fpc.org.uk

On Friday 28 May, The FPC held a major conference in Istanbul 'Turkey 2020: Challenges and Opportunities' at the Point Barbaros Hotel. Exploring the key themes of Turkey's Economic Future, Turkey in the World and A Turkey for all its Citizens it brought together leading progressive thinkers from academia, journalism, business, ngos and politics.

Mustafa Sarigül, leader of Turkey's Change Movement, delivered the keynote speech and its contents can be viewed at http://fpc.org.uk/fsblob/1210.pdf

Download The full speaker line up for Turkey 2020 (180 kilobyte PDF)

Monday 22 March 2010

Time: 6.30pm -8.00pm

Venue: Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Room , Houses of Parliament, London SW1A 0AA (use Cromwell Green Visitors' Entrance)

Speaker:

• Mustafa Sarigül, Leader of Turkey's Movement for Change (TDH) and Mayor of Sisli Municipality

Chair: Adam Hug, Policy Director, Foreign Policy Centre

The Foreign Policy Centre hosted Mustafa Sarigül, leader of Turkey's Movement for Change, that describes itself as a new progressive political force in the centre-ground of Turkish politics.Since its breakthrough victory in 2002, the AKP party of Prime Minister Erdogan has dominated Turkish politics, leaving the old guard parties struggling to find an effective response. Despite its modest gains in last year's local elections, the main opposition party, the Kemalist CHP party, under the veteran leadership of Denis Baykal, is struggling to convince the Turkish public that it could form a plausible alternative government. It is in this environment that Mustafa Sarigül's Turkish Movement for Change is being formed and it has the potential to reach out across the political spectrum.

Sarigül started his political career as Turkey's youngest Parliamentarian in 1987 as part of the CHP. In 1999 he left Parliament to become mayor of Istanbul's central Sisli district, a post he still holds. Blocked from the CHP Presidency in a close-fought internal battle with the incumbent Baykal in 2004, this year he has founded a new party, backed by former members of both the CHP and AKP and high profile figures such as Hikmet Çetin and Faruk Logogu.

Download Speech by Mustafa Sarýgül to the Foreign Policy Centre (350 kilobyte PDF)

Wed 5 November 2008, 6.00-7.30pm

Date: Wed 5 November 2008, 6.00-7.30pm

Venue: Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House, Houses of Parliament, Victoria Embankment, London SW1A 2LW

Speakers:

Peter Luff MP, Chairman, Business & Enterprise Select Committee

John Peet, Europe Editor, The Economist

Roland Rudd, Chairman, Business for New Europe

Serra Kaleli, First Counsellor, Embassy of the Republic of Turkey in London

Chair: Bob Laxton MP, Chair, All-Party British-Turkish Parliamentary Group

The Foreign Policy Centre, in partnership with Business for New Europe, launched a new pamphlet on 5 November that sets out a clear economic and business case for Turkish membership of the European Union. The event was timed to coincide with the release of the EU's report on progress accession and provided an opportunity to debate Turkey's progress towards accession, the challenges it still faces and the important economic and political linkages Turkey and the EU share.

The pamphlet, edited by Adam Hug at the Foreign Policy Centre, contains contributions from: Rt Hon David Miliband MP, Rt Hon William Hague MP, Commissioner Olli Rehn, Roland Rudd (Chairman, Business for New Europe) Dr Mehmet Ugur (University of Greenwich), Prof Refik Erzan (Bogazici University), Dr Bahadir Kaleagasi (TUSIAD, the Turkish business association), Sir Julian Horn Smith, (UK Co-Chair, Turkish British Business Council) and Dr Gareth Winrow (formerly of Istanbul Bilgi University).

Download the pamphlet in full at:

http://fpc.org.uk/fsblob/991.pdf