IPC – TÜSİAD – TCCI Expert Roundtable

July 10, 2014 IPC – TÜSİAD – TCCI Expert Roundtable

The German-Turkish Relationship: Possibilities and Limitations in Light of the Eurozone Crisis and Changing Regional Dynamics”

Date: 10 July 2014

Location: TÜSİAD Headquarters, Meşrutiyet Cad. No. 46 34420 Tepebaşı İstanbul

Germany and Turkey enjoy multidimensional and dynamic relations. At present, the nature of this complex and exclusive relationship is undoubtedly being influenced and reshaped by the EU’s internal constraints and changing regional dynamics in the European periphery and the Middle East particularly in economic, political and social terms. The IPC-TÜSİAD Expert Roundtable will seek to scrutinize the possibilities and limitations of the changing global order for German-Turkish relations in two interconnected sessions. Session 1 will explore the implications of the Eurozone crisis for German-Turkish relations by looking at various factors including the influence of the crisis on both countries’ national economies, Germany’s increasing leadership in the EU since the onset of the crisis and Turkey’s potential contribution to overcoming the crisis. In Session 2 the participants will discuss possibilities and limitations relating to German-Turkish strategic cooperation in view of changing regional dynamics in the European periphery and the Middle East.

The roundtable event will bring together a group of distinguished experts. Each session will open with three short introductory statements of approximately 10 minutes by Istanbul Policy Center (IPC) and TÜSİAD experts and advisors followed by a detailed discussion among the participants. The event will be held in English under Chatham House rules. The event has been initiated by Mercator-IPC Fellow Ebru Turhan.

Program

09:00-09:15 Welcoming Notes

Fuat Keyman, Director, IPC

09:15-10:45 Session 1 – Eurozone crisis: Implications for German-Turkish relations

Chair: Fuat Keyman, Director, IPC

The impacts of the Eurozone crisis on Turkish economy and Turkish-European business relations
Bahri Yılmaz, Senior Scholar, IPC

Germany’s increasing leadership in the EU since the outbreak of the Eurozone crisis: Implications for German policy making vis-à-vis Turkey

Ebru Turhan, Mercator-IPC Fellow, IPC

TTIP, the recent developments and its implications for German/EU-Turkish relations in light of the Eurozone crisis

Erdal Yalçın, Deputy Director, Ifo Center for International Economics

10:45-11:00 Coffee break

11:00-12:30 Session 2: Changing regional dynamics: towards a new role for German-Turkish strategic partnership?

Chair: Senem Aydın Düzgit, Scholar, IPC

Changing regional dynamics in the European periphery and the Middle East: Implications for EU/German-Turkish dialogue

Soli Özel, Senior Lecturer, Kadir Has University and Advisory Board Member, TCCI

Recommendations for a German-Turkish strategic partnership in regions of conflict

Olaf Boehnke, Head of the Berlin Office, European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)

12:30-12:45 Wrap up and closing remarks

Fuat Keyman, Director, IPC

Alper Üçok, Berlin Office Director, TUSIAD & Director, TCCI