American-Turkish Council Seminar on Turkey and the EU: Partnership or Separation?

January 8, 2007

Following the publication of European Commission’s 2006 Turkey Progress and Strategy reports and the EU’s decision to suspend eight out of 35 negotiation chapters, the American-Turkish Council hosted its second Seminar on Turkey and the EU with the participation of policy-analysts, business leaders, academics, and senior-level government officials in Washington DC.

The seminar consisted of two parts: First panel focused on the accession negotiations and how the contemporary developments in EU-Turkey relations would affect it; and the second panel analyzed the U.S.-Turkish perspectives on the negotiations. The speech Ms. Gümüştekin delivered during the first panel can be found here. For more information on the seminar, please click here.

Bosphorus Conference 2006

September 15-16, 2006

The third Bosphorus Conference 2006 “One Year on Turkey’s Progress Towards the EU” was organized by the British Council, Centre for European Reform (CER) and Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) on 15-16 September 2006. The event started with a dinner attended by Mr. Peter Mandelson, EU Commissioner for Trade and Mr. Ali Babacan, Minister of State and Chief Negotiator for the Republic of Turkey. The conference was in the format of a high-level, invitation-only roundtable discussion focusing on:

• Stumbling blocks and opportunities in the accession process including: the state of negotiations; the role of business in accession; possible solutions for the Cyprus question,
• Public opinion and support for accession in Turkey and the European Union

The speech delivered by Ms. Gümüştekin is accessible through here. More information on Bosphorus 2006, can be found here.

Symposium on “European Union and Turkey "Goals, Issues, Implications"

December 8, 2006

The Symposium was organised by the Foundation of Mediterranean Studies - European Parliament, Office for Greece under the Auspices of H.E. the President of the Hellenic Republic Dr Karolos Papoulias on December 8, 2006 in Athens. The Symposium enquired the major political issues, expectations, risks, perspectives in the EU-Turkey relations, the negotiation process and outstanding issues thereby along with the role of the Turkish and European civil societies in this context.

The speech of Ms. Gümüştekin is available here.

Istanbul - European Capital of Culture of 2010

CPS extensively contributed to the activities organised in the context of the 2010 Istanbul European Capital of Culture Initiative in Brussels. CPS supported the Executive Board to organize a press conference in the European Parliament to announce Istanbul's candidacy for the ECOC 2010 on 22 February 2006, during which Istanbul MP Rt. Hon. Egemen Bağış, Chairman of the Advisory Board of Istanbul 2010 ECOC Initiative, and Mr. Nuri M. Çolakoğlu Chairman of the Executive Board briefed the audience on the aims, targets and the projects involved. CPS also assisted the 2010 Istanbul European Capital of Culture Initiative in the organization of a promotion campaign consisting of a cocktail reception and a percussion performance by Burhan Öcal at the European Parliament in February 2006.

Istanbul was nominated as the European Capital of Culture of 2010 by the Council of Ministers on November 13, 2006. In this context a series of events to introduce Istanbul to European citizens and to reinforce the communication and the cultural dialogue between Europe and Istanbul will be organized until the year 2010. CPS is dedicated to support this effort and involved in the organisation of the first of these events by assisting Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) in organizing an exhibition consisting of the works of 15 prominent photographers living in Istanbul, through which they tell the story of this magnificent city from their own eyes. The exhibit, “The Soul of Istanbul”, took place between November 28- 1 December 2006 at the European Parliament in Brussels.