Open Discussions
in association with
Gulf Cultural Club
invites you to a Discussion titled:
Turkey: Important regional power with limited vision
with
Dr Turhan Ozen *
Professor Tahir Abbas**
Turkey is one the largest Muslim countries in the world. It has a history of ambitious expansion that enabled it in the past to create one of the largest Muslim empires in history. Today, Turkey is ruled by an elite with Islamist agenda but is challenged by the political realities on its borders. With one foot in the West and the other in the East, Ankara is still to achieve a sense of ideological belonging. Yet it has been able to identify with moderate Islamic groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, while it forges working relationship with Israel. It endeavours to secure its borders while supporting some armed groups in Syria. It is a member of NATO but its membership of the EU is blocked. It has strategic links with USA and newly-established alliance with Moscow.
Where is Ankara heading today?
Date: Tuesday, 14th February 2017
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: Abrar House, 45 Crawford Place, W1H 4LP
* Dr Turhan Ozen was born in Turkey. After obtaining BSc in Engineering from Middle East Technical University, he studied at Imperial Collage for an MSc and University of Leicester for his PhD. Before moving into private sector, he worked at Nottingham University as a research fellow. Dr Ozen currently works as a software engineer at a finance company.
Dr Ozen is also active in politics. He was a Liberal Democrat European Parliamentary Candidate for London in 2014 and a Parliamentary Candidate for Tottenham in 2015.
In January 2016, Dr Ozen was elected to chair UK Branch of Union of European Turkish Democrats (UETD) an organisation that promotes active participation of the Tukish Community in politics.
Profesor Tahir Abbas is a Senior Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London (2016-). He specialises in urban ethnicity and minority-majority relations. Having just completed his book on ethnicity, Islam, and politics in Turkey, he is writing on areas of Islam, Islamism, Islamophobia, radicalisation, identity politics and social conflict in Western European contexts. Previously, he was Professor of Sociology at Fatih University in Istanbul (2010-2016), Reader in Sociology at Birmingham University (2003-2009), and Senior Research Officer at the Home Office and Ministry of Justice in London (2001-2003). He has held visiting professorships or fellowships at the Remarque Institute of New York University, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, Institute for Religious Studies at Leiden University, Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Iqbal International Institute for Research and Dialogue at the International Islamic University in Islamabad, and the Graduate School of the State Islamic University in Jakarta.
Abbas is the author of The Education of British South Asians (Palgrave-Macmillan), Islamic Radicalism and Multicultural Politics (Routledge) and Contemporary Turkey in Conflict(Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming). He has published numerous (co)edited collections with Zed, Edinburgh University Press, IB Tauris, Routledge and Hurst. He has also published in many sociology, education, Islamic studies, geography and political science journals. Abbas has written for The Guardian, Times Higher Education, NZZ, Prospect, Open Democracy, Prospect, New Internationalist and Fair Observer among others.
Admission is Free. Please register for catering purposes – email: d05sa@yahoo.co.uk or text 07795 660 438
