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Conference on US-Turkish relationsâ€™ future launched in Washington

04 November 2010 08:34 (UTC +04:00)

Washington. Isabel Levine â€“ APA. US-Turkish relations and South Caucasusâ€™ place in this relationship is actively discussed nowadays in Washington DC, APAâ€™s US correspondent reports.

Rumi Foundation has launched a conference on the US-Turkish relationsâ€™ future November 3rd, addressing such issues as the rise of the Justice and Development Party, the 1915 events, Turkish-European relations and South Caucasusâ€™ role.

Noticing that both Turkey and US play an important role as mediators in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the conference attendees also stressed the importance of Turkey-NATO dialog, and the closer co-operation between South Caucasus and NATO.

But according to the experts, in light of the November 2 Midterm Elections, domestic issues in both Ankara and Washington are causing pessimism on both sides of the Atlantic. The speed with which U.S.-Turkish relations have gone sour after over six decades as NATO and strategic allies have caught many off-guard and deserves further scrutiny.

Another conference to address the US-Turkish relations will be held November 10 at the Center for American Progress, with the participation of Steven A. Cook, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, Soner Cagaptay, Director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Michael Werz, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.

Has Turkey chosen to align itself with the "East" over the "West," as some have suggested? What are the implications of Turkeyâ€™s impressive economic growth, both for Turkeyâ€™s domestic politics and for its foreign policy? How will the relations between the two countries develop? These are the main questions the participants will address.