Over one hundred Turkish national political personalities, regional leaders, journalists and civil society activists participated in the conference “South East Anatolia and the European Union” which was held in the city of Gazianteppe 28-29 March. The Conference was the last event in the project that LINKS has implemented with the European Affairs Committee of the Turkish Parliament over the last two years.
Amongst the speakers in the Gazianteppe Conference were the Turkish Minister for the Treasury, the Chairman of the European Affairs Committee of the Turkish Parliament, Mr Yasir Yakis, who was leading a delegation of ten Turkish Mps, the Governor of Gazianteppe, senior officials from South Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey and several European Union Ambassadors accredited to Turkey.
A delegation from LINKS headed by Executive Director Dennis Sammut also participated in the event.
After the opening session the conference divided into five working groups discussing the role of Media, Municipalities, Business and Young People in the accession process of Turkey towards the European Union.
A special issue of the publication Yeni Yildiz, launched by the project a year ago, was also available to conference participants.
A spokesperson for LINKS in London said that LINKS was delighted to have had the opportunity to implement this two year project with the Turkish Parliament. Despite many difficulties that had to be overcome, especially given the challenging political background in Turkey during the project duration, the project was a huge success particularly in enabling the Turkish parliament to take ownership of the EU accession agenda and its ability to take the message out to the nation. The Gazianteppe Conference, and the Izmir conference held in April 2007 were proof of this. The LINKS spokesperson added “we are delighted that our project managed to leverage considerable funding from the European Commission for the work to be continued after our project has ended”.
He also thanked the many Turkish colleagues who had contributed to the success of the project.
