On Thursday, July 24, 2008 Abdullah Akyuz spoke on a panel about the Justice and Development Party (AKP)’s legal case, which could have forced the party to close down and its leading figures, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, to be banned from party politics for five years.  Mr. Akyuz gave his own perspective of the situation and did not speak on behalf of his organization, TUSIAD.

The panelists discussed the likelihood that the AKP would be shut down, the domestic consequences for Turkey to see its ruling party closed and the country’s democratically elected leaders removed from office, the impact this could have on the ongoing Israel-Syria negotiations facilitated by the AKP-led Turkish government, the effects it could have both on U.S.-Turkish relations and on the credibility of American efforts to promote democracy in the Middle East, as well as how the United States has reacted to the closure case, and what actions, if any, the U.S. should take.

The other panelists included:

Bulent Aliriza, Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Director of CSIS’s Turkey project. He was previously a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and also served as a diplomat in New York and Washington

And Omer Taspinar, Professor of National Security Strategy at the U.S. National War College and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he directs Brookings’ Turkey Project. He is also the author of the 2005 book, Political Islam and Kurdish Nationalism in Turkey. 

The panel was moderated by Stephen McInerney, Director of Advocacy, Project on Middle East Democracy.

Click Here to View POMED's Flyer Invitation.

Click Here to View Abdullah Akyuz' Prepared Statement.