A year has passed since the approval of a new Constitution that will turn Turkey’s regime into an executive presidency. Simultaneously, Turkey’s relations with the Western institutions, both the EU and NATO, have become increasingly strained. This seminar asked what the current nature of the Turkey-EU relationship has been. How has Turkey’s increasingly problematic relationship with NATO affected EU-Turkey cooperation? What has been Turkey’s place in the EU’s security architecture? Considering its highly authoritarian domestic system and aggressive foreign policy in the Middle East in particular, has it still been possible to regard Turkey as an important security-provider to the Western world? 

Speakers were: 

• Paul T. Levin, Director, Stockholm University Institute for Turkish Studies 
• Hanna Ojanen, Docent, University of Helsinki
• Comments: Toni Alaranta, Senior Research Fellow, the Finnish Institute of International Affairs
• Chair: Teija Tiilikainen, Director, the Finnish Institute of International Affairs

A full video-documentation of the seminar is available here.