Seminar asks 'Is Turkey European?'

A SEMINAR at the London School of Economics which was hosted

Kategori	: English
Yorum Sayısı	: 0
Okunma	: 889
Tarih	: 23 Nisan 2009 13:00

By Fatih Cansiz

A SEMINAR at the London School of Economics which was hosted by the Association for Cypriot, Greek and Turkish Affairs on Monday, featured the publication of a book called Trials of Europeanization Turkish Political Culture and The European Union by Dr Ioannis Grigoriades.

The seminar, which was chaired by QC barrister Alper Ali Riza, started with the discussion focusing on the need of a liberal consensus in Turkish society.

Dr Grigoriades, who moved to Athens 18 months ago, said "It should be clear that my book doesn't try to create enemies for Turkey. It is just trying to examine the membership of Turkey as a really important factor for both Greece and Turkey. National identity and secularisation are the two biggest obstacles for Turkey and this is not what the EU is interested in."

Other speakers included Bruce Clark, international news editor and religion correspondent of The Economist who talked on Turkey's EU membership and the AKP case of "moderate Islam" and Dr James Ker-Lindsay of European Institute who spoke on the difficulties associated with Turkey's EU accession process.

Dr Ker-Lindsay said "There is more work to done by EU in the areas of geography, culture, language, history and religion. Albania is an example of history and culture where they come from Ottoman culture and history."

54321

© 2005-2010 Tüm Hakları Saklıdır
RSS Kaynağı | Yazar Girişi