Director of GPoT Center, Dr. Mensur Akgün, participated in the EuroMeSCo Annual Conference 2011 in Barcelona between October 6th and 7th, 2011.
The title of the conference was: "A New Mediterranean Political Landscape? The Arab Spring and Euro-Mediterranean Relations”. The debates during the two-day event covered the following topics:
GPoT Center’s project officer and researcher, Can Yirik, attended the Preparatory Workshop entitled “Building Democracy: The Role and Involvement of Youth and Civil Society,” held in Marrakech, Morocco between the 17th and 18th of September.
The workshop, which was held as one of the preparatory meetings for the 8th Forum for the Future initiative, was organized by the Kuwait Transparency Society, Organisation Marocaine des Droits Humains and France Expertise International in partnership with the co-chairs of this year’s Forum for the Future, France and Kuwait.
Members of the Eurasia Partnership Foundation Executive Committee visited GPoT Center on July 8th, 2011.
During the 3-hour long meeting held on the premises of Istanbul Kultur University, the GPoT Center staff discussed with the Members of the Eurasia Partnership Foundation Executive Committee, in detail, the current domestic politics in Turkey as well as foreign policies of both Turkey and Armenia.
GPoT Center hosted 5 Armenian media experts in Istanbul between 6-12 June, 2011 within the scope of the Pre-election Exchange of Journalists component of the “Support to Armenia-Turkey Rapprochement” Project.
On Wednesday, June 8, 2011 a group of 17 Turkish and American young professionals participating in the US State Department funded "Young Turkey / Young America" program visited GPoT Center.
On Friday, June 3, 2011, Global Political Trends Center in partnership with New York University's Center on International Cooperation and the Institute of Strategic Thinking (Stratejik Düşünce Enstitüsü) and with the support of the Turkish and Norwegian Ministries of Foreign Affairs.
International Political Science Association (IPSA) has chosen one of the latest GPoT Center books to feature in the May issue of the IPSA Newsletter.
The publication entitled "The Heybeliada Talks: Two Years of Public Diplomacy on Cyprus" prepared by Lenka Peťková and edited by Drs. Sylvia Tiryaki and Mensur Akgün was presented in the "Books by Members" section of the IPSA Newsletter in May 2011.
Dr. Mensur Akgün together with Sabiha Senyücel Gündoğar, Aybars Görgülü, and Erdem Aydın prepared a report featuring results of the research on the "Perceptions of the Foreign Policy in Turkey".
Press meeting with the participation of the authors, as well as the Chairman of the TESEV Executive Board, Can Paker, and the rector of the Kadir Has University, Mustafa Aydın, was held on June 1, 2011. To read the report in Turkish click here.
Summary of the Main Results in Turkish
The Director of GPoT Center, Dr. Mensur Akgün, with his colleagues from TESEV, participated in a joint event organized by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and TESEV in Berlin on May 23rd, 2011.
During the event, they presented a study conducted by TESEV and supported by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, examining how Turks perceive the current foreign policy of their country. According to the findings, in the past, the views of the ordinary citizen differed from the official foreign policy. This is less and less the case - examples are relations with Israel, Armenia, Iran and Greece.
GPoT Center hosted five journalists from Armenia for a one-month fellowship in Istanbul from April 18th to May 15th, 2011.