Cambridge – Public ESI event at the Harvard Kennedy School: Minorities, Justice and the Future of Turkish Democracy

5 May 2011
Gerald Knaus – Orhan Kemal Cengiz
Gerald Knaus – Orhan Kemal Cengiz

A round-table discussion on Turkish politics and Turkey's identity with Gerald Knaus (Chairman, European Stability Initiative; Associate Fellow, Carr Center, Harvard Kennedy School) and Orhan Kemal Cengiz (President, Human Rights Agenda Association; lawyer, human rights defender and newspaper columnist)

Never has it been more important to understand where Turkey is going. As a polarized society is gripped by pre-election fever many important questions about the state of its democratization project remain. Join us as we assess this project in light of what recent years have meant for Turkey's minorities.

Gerald Knaus, Chairman of the European Stability Initiative, presented new ESI research on the small community of Christians (Greeks, Protestants, Armenians) and the wider implications for debates on Turkish identify. He also assessed the current state of Turkey's internal judicial power struggle with the help of Orhan Kemal Cengiz, one of Turkey's most prominent human rights lawyers.

In this way the many challenges facing Turkey today – from debates about national identity to the position of Islam, from freedom of speech to civil-military relations and confronting state crimes of the past, from relations with the EU to its neighborhood policy – came into sharper focus.

Please find more information about this event on the Kokkalis Program's Facebook page. Please also watch a video of an earlier ESI presentation at the Harvard Kennedy School on "European soft power and the future of liberal democracy in the Balkans and Turkey".

This event was jointly organised by the Harvard Kennedy School and ESI

Harvard Kennedy School