Dear Sir or Madame,
We would like to invite you to our conference „The ’new‘ Turkey and its challengers“, which is organised in cooperation with the Volkshochschule Cologne and with the support of Civaka Azad – Kurdish Centre for Public Relations and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.
Date: 19.01.19, 1 – 6pm
Adress: FORUM Volkshochschule im Museum am Neumarkt
Cäcilienstr. 35, 50667 Köln
Programme:
1:00 – 1:15 pm Opening
1:15 – 2:45 pm
Panel I: From the past to the present
Ismail Küpeli (political scientist, University of Bochum): The legacy of 1923: the Turkish nation state then and now
Mahir Tokatli (political scientist, University of Bonn): What is „new“ about the new system of government? Presidentialism alla Turca between Continuity and Change
Ziya Pir (former HDP MP): Erdogan’s Foreign Policy: Stability or Conflict in the Region?
Dr. Günter Seufert (political scientist, SWP): German policy towards Turkey: Continuity vs. Reorientation
Moderation: Susana Santina, journalist, Wiesbaden
2:45 – 3:15 pm
Coffee break
3:15 – 4:45 pm
Panel II: Rethinking democracy
Rosa Burç (Center for Social Movement Studies, Scuola Normale Superiore, Florenz): An alternative Turkey. The HDP; feminist, grassroots democratic, egalitarian
Ramazan Mebdanlioğlu (political scientist, University of Hamburg): Democratic autonomy as a blueprint for new democracies
Moderation: Çiler Fırtına, interpretor, Cologne
4:45 – 6 pm
Final discussion:
Challenges and Perspectives of Turkey Today
Moderation: Dersim Dağdeviren, physician, board member of Kurd-Akad, Dortmund
Our topic
After the military coup attempt of 16 July 2016, a massive process of restructuring the state apparatus began in Turkey with the aim of institutionalising the presidential a la President Erdoğan and his AKP. Early parliamentary and presidential elections underpinned these efforts.
With the conference under the title „The ’new‘ Turkey and its challengers“ we would like to work out the political continuities, changes and challenges in Turkey on the basis of a deeper view of nation state, nationalism, regime change under Erdogan, oppositional forces and basis-democratic alternatives.