Turkey—or is it Europe—at the Crossroads?
Wednesday, April 4, 2007 at 6:30 pm. Cantor Film Center of NYU New York, N.Y.
A panel discussion with: Steven Cook, Douglas Dillon Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations; Baki Ilkin, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Turkey to the United Nations; Tony Judt, Director of the Remarque Institute at NYU and author of the book, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945; Bahadir Kaleagasi, Permanent Representative of the Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association (TUSIAD) to the EU in Brussels; Fernando M. Valenzuela, Ambassador and Permanent Observer of the European Commission to the United Nations. Moderated by Mustapha Tlili, Founder and Director, Dialogues: Islamic World-U.S.-The West, NYU.
Turkish public support for joining the EU has now dipped below 50%, despite the current conservative government’s staunch support for Turkey’s accession. While Turkey’s secular establishment, including the army, is still strongly driven by the Ataturk vision of looking west to achieve modernity, secularists are starting to feel uneasy—if not impatient—in face of the constant difficulties created by EU negotiators on Turkey’s path to Europe. And what does Europe stand to lose or gain from Turkish accession? Would the addition of Turkey’s young and increasingly well-educated population to the European labor pool solve Europe’s aging crisis, or is Turkey simply too big and potentially too competitive for Europe’s three established big powers—France, Germany, and the United Kingdom—to accept the country in their club? Finally, is an organization that former European Commission president Jacques Delors once called a “Christian club” ready to embrace a large Islamic nation as a member of the family? Meanwhile, in the United States, pundits and policy-makers across the political spectrum argue that entry into the EU will bolster Turkey’s credentials as a secular Islamic country, offering Muslims around the world an attractive alternative to the growing popularity of militant Islamism. The panelists will debate these and other controversial policy questions raised by Turkey’s entry to—or refusal by—the EU.
Offered in cooperation with the Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations in New York and the Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (TUSIAD-US).
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