Security, Civil Society and the Turkish State – Panel Discussion

What happens when a strong state and an emerging civil society collide in their struggle for power, and what kind of security issues arise as a result of clashes between these two?

Panel members:

Ekin Ergün Björstedt – Sweden’s former Trade Commissioner to Turkey, and Head of the Swedish Trade Council’s operations in Central Asia. Most recently Ekin worked with sustainability at TeliaSonera, and, since October 2013, she is the Associate Director for the Stockholm University Institute for Turkey Studies.

Pelin Demirörs – Master’s student in Political Science at Stockholm University. Pelin is a Turkish politics enthusiast, and actively engaged in questions regarding the Turkish civil society.

Umut Özkırımlı – Professor of Contemporary Turkey Studies at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, at Lund University. Umut is also an Honorary Professor at the Centre for Modern European Studies, at the University of Copenhagen, a Senior Fellow at Istanbul Policy Centre, at Sabanci University, and a Research Associate of LSEE – Research on South East Europe, The London School of Economics.

Erik Ohlsson – Middle East correspondent at Dagens Nyheter, stationed in Stockholm. He has been working for Dagens Nyheter since 1979, and was previously the correspondent in New York, Washington D.C. and in Moscow.

Moderator: Ann-Kristin Jonasson – Ph. D. and senior lecturer in Political Science at the University of Gothenburg, and was previously employed at the School of Global Studies and the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES), Lund University. Her main research interest covers EU’s democracy promotion in the Mediterranean, and democratic processes in primarily Turkey and Jordan.