The third of the Europe - Turkey Forum will be held in Berlin, between December 1-2, 2010, with the cooperation of Turkish Asian Center for Strategic Studies (TASAM) and the Turkey and Compliance Research Center (TAM) Foundation, the headquarter of which is located in Germany. The main theme of the Forum will be “Changing Roles of Europe and Turkey In Foreign Policy“.
National parliaments from Turkey, Germany and Europe, various parliamentarians on behalf of European Parliament, politicians, and senior executives from public institutions, experts, academicians and press members will be attending the 3rd Europe – Turkey Forum. This meeting is also anticipated to be the first step of the “Turkish – German Europe Platform“ which TASAM and TAM Foundation are working together on to gain sustainability in Germany.
The 3rd Europe – Turkey Forum will last for two days and these subjects will be discussed in five sessions: “European Integration and Turkey: Balance Sheets and Perspectives in the Fifth Year of Negotiations“, “Turkey Within the Equation of European Security and Defense Policies“, “Security of Energy Supply Policies of Europe and the Role of Turkey In Energy Security“, “The Effects of the World Financial Crisis For European Union and Turkey and the Situation of Turkey In the European Market“ and “Demographic Developments in Europe; Power Policies of Turkey and European Union“.
The opening statements of the Forum will be presented by the Director of Turkey and Compliance Research Center (TAM) Foundation Prof. Dr. Hacı Halil USLUCAN, the Chairman of Turkish Asian Center for Strategic Studies (TASAM) Süleyman ŞENSOY, State Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany Dr. Werner HOYER, State Minister of the Turkish Republic Egemen BAĞIŞ.
THE STATEMENT OF THE CHAIRMAN OF TASAM SÜLEYMAN ŞENSOY
In his statement, the Chairman of TASAM Süleyman Şensoy reported that; “As a result of the developments seen recently in the Turkish foreign policy followed in the Turkish and European public opinion, we see some discussions about the “axis shift“. The foreign policy expansions of Turkey in the geography of Caucasus and especially Middle East have frequently caused some worries in the public opinion. The main reasons behind of these worries have been the superiority of Turkey, inherited from its history, and the geographic condition of Turkey. However, it is an obligatory for Turkey to obtain an “organizing“ role in this geography as a Black Sea – Caucasus and Middle East country. It will be an healthier approach to search for the basic of these “axis shift“ worries within the attitude of EU towards Turkey and the fact that EU accession negotiations have always stuck at certain subjects.
At this point, EU has to redefine it relations with Turkey, a country that has been strengthening its position in the world, especially regarding its economy and foreign policy.
On December 17, 2004, the Brussels European Council decided to start the accession negotiations with Turkey as of September 3, 2005 following some though negotiations and as a result outlined the “negotiation framework“ to be followed during Turkey negotiations. The Turkey negotiations were designed as a more political process other than the past technical and objective processes. In this process the operation area of Turkey was so limited; there were different ways of approach that would not exclude different relationship ways apart from the accession relations.
Only a year after the start of the negotiations, the European Council of 2006 decided to freeze the Turkey negotiations for eight topics. Following this unfair and politic decision, depending on the Cyprus problem, the accession process of Turkey lost acceleration rapidly. Today the one sided image of the negotiation process carried out by the two parties with all the expectations shown very clearly, and the changing politic and economic balances in European countries harm the proceeding of the negotiation process that should have been maintained without being restrained. Thus, it is a must to push hard to remove all the fears, worries and disappointments in order to carry this dialogue to a more possible ground and to make all the necessary steps come true.“
The sessions of the Forum will be chaired by the names below: General Director of the South Eastern Europe Institute Dr. Hansjörg BREY, Vice President of TASAM (R) Ambassador Murat BİLHAN, Board Chairman of IKV Prof. Dr. Haluk KABAALİOĞLU, Vice Rector of Marmara University Prof. Dr. Hasan SELÇUK and Director of TAM Foundation Dr. Andreas GOLDBERG.
To get further information and the programme, you can use this link:
http://www.tasam.org/index.php?sagblok=55
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