Events Detail

Dear Colleague:
We are pleased to invite you to a timely day-long conference on the future of Turkey.

On Friday, June 23, 2006, the Center for Security Policy and the Hudson Institute Center for Future Security Strategies will co-host a conference entitled “Whither Turkey?” at Hudson’s main office at 1015 15th Street, 6th floor, N.W., Washington D.C, located near the McPherson Square Metro station.

The murder on May 17 of one of the five Council of State judges by an Islamist gunman, reportedly in protest against the court’s ruling to forbid a teacher from wearing a hijab, acutely raises again the issue of Islamist-inspired extremism in Turkey. President Ahmet Necdet Sezer himself denounced the attack as a “heinous attack which targets the secular republic.” Many in Turkey and elsewhere believe that the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan shows that Islamism and secular democracy are fundamentally compatible. Others strongly disagree, arguing that Turkey’s Islamists are using democracy as an instrument to destroy the country’s secular traditions and ultimately its democratic system itself. The CSP-Hudson conference will address these contrasting viewpoints by providing a forum for debate by American and Turkish policy-makers, experts, academic specialists, and journalists.

In the morning session, two prominent experts representing the different interpretations will present their views, to be followed by a panel discussion. A prominent American figure will deliver the luncheon address. In the afternoon, panelists will assess the impact of Islamism in key areas of Turkish public policy, including education, the justice system, civil-military relations, foreign policy, corruption, and Islamic finance. The attached preliminary agenda provides additional details.

To RSVP please e-mail Richard Weitz at weitz@hudson.org.

Sincerely,