Debate “Turkey-EU Relations: Never Ending Story?”

Date of publication: February 1, 2020

Prague Centre for Middle East Relations (PCMR) of CEVRO Institute organized a public debate “Turkey-EU Relations: Never Ending Story”. The event was held on Thursday, January 30, 2020, 17:00-18:30 at the atrium of CEVRO Institute (Jungmannova 17, Prague 1) Our distinguished guests were: 

  • Prof.Dr. Erhan Doğan, Lecturer and Researcher from Marmara University in Istanbul. 
  • Karolína Lahučká, Analyst of Research Centre of the Association for International Affairs (AMO) in Prague. 

Our guests discussed the recent development in Turkey-European Union relations.The lecture also focused on contemporary views on shifts in Turkish foreign policies with respect to its ties to European countries, the US, Russia and Ankara’s engagement in the Middle East.

The debate was moderated by Tomáš Kaválek, Director of PCMR.

Prof. Dr. Erhan Doğan, is a researcher and lecturer at Marmara University‘s Department of Political Science and International Relations since 2003. He teaches Comparative Politics, Comparative Government, European Union, Turkey-EU Relations and Civil Society courses.  Dr. Doğan’s research activities are basically focused on the impacts of Turkey-EU interaction and its impacts over Turkish politics. The impacts of the EU travel visas over Turkish citizens’ political and travel behaviours are a research question that Dr. Doğan had conducted research on. Dr. Doğan also research on the increasing Civil Society/NGO involvement to Turkish Foreign policy which is a by-product of Turkey-EU engagement and developing capabilities and might of Turkey’s commercial and industrialist bourgeoisie and identity based social and political groups. Dr. Doğan, had been at Ohio State University, USA (1999-2000) and the Free University of Brussels-ULB, Belgium (2000) as a Ph.D. level visiting researcher, and Dublin City University, Ireland (2008-2009), Higher School of Economics, Moscow (2013), Jawaharlal Nehru University (2014), India as a post-doctoral  researcher.

Karolína Lahučká obtained her Master Degree in Political Science and Turkology at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University in Prague focusing on International Relations. She continues her Ph.D. studies there concentrating on modern history of Turkey. Ms. Lahučká is interested in contemporary political developments in Turkey, policies of president Erdoğan, and changes of Turkish nationalism. Recently, she also started to closely follow Turkey-NATO relations and Turkish role in the Middle East. In 2019, Ms. Lahučká was awarded with research stipend at the Asien-Afrika Institut at University of Hamburg. She also works as a project coordinator and analyst of Research Centre of the Association for International Affairs (AMO) in Prague.