ResearchTurkey & BIAA Conference: “Turkey and the UK: Their Policies towards the EU after their General Elections”, 15 June 2015
Title: “Turkey and the UK: Their Policies towards the EU after their General Elections”
Speakers: Hikmet Çetin, Jack Straw, Soli Özel and Quentin Peel
Date: Monday, 15 June 2015
Time: 18:30-20:30
Venue: Wolfson Auditorium, British Academy,10 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AH
Chair: Sir David Logan, Chairman of the British Institute at Ankara (BIAA)
We are pleased to announce Centre for Policy and Research on Turkey (Research Turkey)’s public conference organised in partnership with The British Institute at Ankara (BIAA), entitled “Turkey and the UK: Their Policies towards the EU after their General Elections” to be held on Monday, 15 June 2014, at Wolfson Auditorium, British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AH between 6.30p.m. and 8.30p.m. The speakers are Hikmet Çetin (Former Turkish Foreign Minister), Jack Straw (Former British Foreign Minister), Soli Özel (Senior Lecturer, Kadir Has University; Columnist, Habertürk) and Quentin Peel (Editor/Columnist, The Financial Times). Sir David Logan will kindly chair the event.
Turkey and the UK both have complex and often troubled relations with the European Union. The causes are very different, but the challenges for both derive in part from their geographical locations on the European periphery; their sometimes ambiguous sense of European identity; and their possession of important non-European interests. Both countries have General Elections this spring. A priority for their new governments will be to develop policies towards the EU which reflect the election outcomes; which manage the challenges and opportunities which Europe presents; and which will guide their approach to the EU in the medium term.
This event is a ticketed event. It requires pre-registration and a ticket to enter. The ticket price is £10 per person. Seating for ticket holders will be first come, first served. To buy a ticket, please e-mail to the following e-mail address: biaa@britac.ac.uk
Short Biographies of the Participants and the Chair
Hikmet Çetin is the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey. Mr. Çetin was elected to the Turkish Parliament in 1977 as a member of the Republican People’s Party (CHP). He was appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister in 1978. In 1997, he was re-elected to the Parliament from the Social Democratic People’s Party (SHP). Minister Çetin worked at various executive levels within SHP, including the post of the Secretary General. In 1991, he was re-elected to the Parliament and then served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the two coalition Governments between 1991 and 1994. Mr. Çetin was once again appointed as the Minister of State and Deputy Prime Minister in 1995. In the 1995 general elections, Minister Çetin retook his seat in the Parliament and was elected as the Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) in October 1997. On 19 November 2003, he was appointed as the NATO Senior Civilian Representative (SCR) for Afghanistan and served till 2006.
Jack Straw is the former Foreign Secretary of United Kingdom. Mr. Straw has held the positions of Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (2007 to 2010), Leader of the House of Commons and Lord Privy Seal (2006 to 2007) and Foreign Secretary (2001 to 2006), Home Secretary (1997 to 2001) in government. He was Shadow Deputy Prime Minister (2010 to 2010), Shadow Lord Chancellor and Shadow Secretary of State for Justice (also Shadow Minister for London) (2010 to 2010), Shadow Secretary of State (Home Office) (1994 to 1997), Shadow Secretary of State (Environment) (1992 to 1994), Shadow Secretary of State for Education (1987 to 1992), Shadow Spokesperson (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) (1983 to 1987), Shadow Spokesperson (Treasury) (1980 to 1983) in opposition. Mr. Straw was a Member of Parliament for Blackburn from 1979 to 2015.
Soli Özel is currently a full time Professor at Kadir Has University and columnist at Habertürk Daily newspaper. He has been an advisor to the chairperson of TUSIAD for the last 16 years. He is a regular contributor to German Marshall Fund’s web site’s “ON Turkey” series and writes a bimonthly column for Italy’s Espresso magazine. His writings have been published in international newspapers and academic journals. His latest published work is co-authored with Serhat Guvenc and entitled “NATO and Turkey in the Post-Cold War World: Between Abandonment and Entrapment”
Quentin Peel is a senior fellow at The Royal Institute of Foreign Affairs (Chatham House). A career journalist, his appointments at the Financial Times included bureau chief in Brussels (1984-87), Moscow (1988-91), and Berlin (2010-14). Peel was foreign editor 1994-98, and chief foreign affairs columnist from 1998-2008. He also wrote a regular foreign affairs column and is Associate Editor for leader and feature writing. Mr. Peel writes for several other major international print media and appears regularly on broadcast media around the world. Quentin was in Johannesburg when Rhodesia became Zimbabwe in 1976 and apartheid began to weaken. Peel was Africa Editor, based in London, from 1981 to 1984. Mr. Peel covered the emergence of the EU as European Community Correspondent and Bureau Chief in Brussels in the mid-1980s. In 1988, Peel was posted in Moscow and covered the Gorbachev revolution, the end of the Soviet empire and the Cold War. From 1991, he covered the German reunification from Bonn. Over the course of his career, Peel has received several honours and prizes: David Holden Prize for International Reporter of the Year, UK Press Awards, 1990; Premio di Napoli, awarded by the city of Naples and the European Parliament, for reporting on European affairs, 2002; Honorary Doctorate, Birmingham University, UK, 2006; and Chevalier, French Légion d’Honneur, 2006.
Sir David Logan is Chairmann of the British Institute at Ankara. Sir Logan was British Ambassador to Turkey from 1997-2001, and also served at the British Embassy there between 1965-1969. For most of his career in the Diplomatic Service he specialised in east-west relations and in defence policy. He served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the British Embassies in Moscow and Washington. His postings in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office included appointments as Assistant Under Secretary of State for Central and Eastern European Affairs, and for Defence Policy. He was Director of the Centre for Studies in Security and Diplomacy and an Honorary Professor in the School of Social Sciences at Birmingham University between 2002 and 2007. He is Chair of the British Institute at Ankara, which supports and enables research in Turkey and the Black Sea region in the fields of archaeology, history and contemporary social science.
