We welcome our 2021/22 Mercator-IPC Fellows Anna Zadrożna, Arzu Karakulak, Ezgi Ediboğlu, Onur Sazak, Sibel Karadağ and Theocharis Grigoriadis.

Anna Zadrożna | Green Spaces for Cities Survival: Use and Perception of Green Spaces in Istanbul and Strategies for their Sustainable Governance

Arzu Karakulak | Unpuzzling the Pandemic-Prejudice Link: Understanding How and When the Threat of COVID-19 Leads to Prejudice Against Refugees

Ezgi Ediboğlu | The Technology Roadmap on Combating Climate Change: A Proposal for Turkey

Onur Sazak | Reengaging European Philanthropy in the Restoration of Turkish Civil Society

Sibel Karadağ | On the Eve of a New “Deal”: Scope, Actors, and Method

Theocharis Grigoriadis | German-style Energy Transitions: Wind Energy & Development in Turkey

The panel discussed the ways to overcome the current stalemate in Turkey-EU relations and explore ways to tackle these challenges within and beyond Turkey’s accession to the Union. The event was organized within the framework of Hannes Swoboda’s Mercator-IPC Senior Fellowship. 

The Istanbul Policy Center-Sabancı University-Stiftung Mercator Initiative organized a panel discussion titled “The Future of Europe/EU: Institutions, Governance, and Strategies.” moderated by Fuat Keyman, featuring 2022 Mercator-IPC Senior Fellow Andreas Nick and IPC Senior Scholar and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Sabancı University Meltem Müftüler-Baç as speakers at Cinema Hall, Sabancı University on May 23.

The Welcoming of the 2021/22 Mercator-IPC Fellows was held on October 11 at Barbare Vineyard House. The event began with welcoming remarks by IPC Director Fuat Keyman and Stiftung Mercator Director Michael Schwarz. The event continued with a movie screening that introduced the 2021/22 Mercator-IPC Fellows Anna Zadrożna, Arzu Karakulak, Ezgi Ediboğlu, Onur Sazak, Sibel Karadağ and Theocharis Grigoriadis.

Please click here to watch the video.

The Welcoming of the 2021/22 Mercator-IPC Fellows was held on October 11 at Barbare Vineyard House. The event began with welcoming remarks by IPC Director Fuat Keyman and Stiftung Mercator Director Michael Schwarz. The event continued with a movie screening that introduced the 2021/22 Mercator-IPC Fellows Anna Zadrożna, Arzu Karakulak, Ezgi Ediboğlu, Onur Sazak, Sibel Karadağ and Theocharis Grigoriadis.

Pleace click here for the event. 

The Welcoming of the 2020/21 Mercator-IPC Fellows was held on October 19 at The Seed. The event began with welcoming remarks by Yusuf Leblebici, followed by remarks from Fuat Keyman and Michael Schwarz. The event continued with a speech by Mercator-IPC Visiting Senior Fellow Pankaj Mishra and a Q&A section moderated by Senior Scholar Senem Aydın-Düzgit. The speech was followed by a movie screening that introduced the 2020/21 Mercator-IPC Fellows Ahmet Atıl Aşıcı, David Samuel Williams, Elena Dück, Jan Schierkolk, Karolína Augustová, Michael Kaeding, and Özge Geyik. 

Please click here to watch the broadcast.

Please click here to watch the speech by Mercator-IPC Visiting Senior Fellow Pankaj Mishra and a Q&A section moderated by Senior Fellow Senem Aydın-Düzgit.

The final meeting of the Track II diplomacy working group, under the scope of the project “Revitalizing Turkey-EU/Germany Relations,” funded by the IPC-Sabancı University-Stiftung Mercator Initiative, took place on December 14, 2018, in the European Parliament, Brussels. The meeting was held with the participation of Senior Scholar and Research and Academic Affairs Coordinator Senem Aydın-Düzgit, 2017/18 Mercator-IPC Senior Fellow Atila Eralp, and Sabancı University Faculty Member Meltem Müftüler-Baç.

IPC-Sabancı University-Stiftung Mercator Initiative, the Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies and the European Union and Global Research Association convened an expert roundtable titled “Beyond Chapters: The Future of Turkey in Europe” on November 18, 2014 at TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Ankara. The event took place within the framework of Hannes Swoboda’s Mercator-IPC Senior Fellowship. The expert roundtable, which was chaired by President of Middle East Strategic Research Center (ORSAM) Şaban Kardaş, hosted Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry for European Union Affairs of Turkey Burak Erdenir, President of the European Stability Initiative, and Deputy Director of the Ifo Center for International Economics Erdal Yalçın as speakers and Director of Istanbul Policy Center Fuat Keyman as a discussant.

On May 2, 2012, Istanbul Policy Center and the Brookings Institution co-organized the Eighth Annual Sakıp Sabancı Lecture, which featured a keynote speech by Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Adviser to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and co-chair of the Center for Strategic and International Studies Advisory Board. Entitled “The West and Turkey: Their Role in Shaping Wider Global Architecture,” Brzezinski’s lecture delved into the recent developments in the region vis-à-vis the Arab Spring and its implications for Turkey and its Transatlantic relations. The Sabancı University students joined in the conference from Istanbul via video link. Moderated by Meltem Müftüler-Baç, IPC Senior Scholar and Sabancı University Professor, the thought-provoking questions by the students kindled a lively debate among participants in Washington and Istanbul.

Istanbul Policy Center (IPC), in conjunction with Sabancı University, organized a simulation of the Cyprus negotiations by Sabancı University students on February 25, 2012 at the Marmara Hotel in Taksim. The simulation was the last session of the Istanbul Conference on Mediation entitled “Enhancing Peace through Mediation New Actors, Fresh Approaches, Bold Initiatives,” a two-day conference hosted by the Turkish Foreign Ministry. The summit began on the previous day and was attended by approximately 250 foreign ministers, local and foreign experts, academics, civil society representatives, and UN officials. During the conference, a wide range of issues on different aspects of mediation were discussed in a broad framework, including the future of Istanbul as an international mediation hub.

The simulation, prepared by Sabancı University Professor and IPC Senior Scholar Meltem Müftüler-Baç and Sabancı University Professors Teri Murphy and Emre Hatipoğlu, was carried out by 34 students from Sabancı University’s European Studies (MA), Social and Political Sciences (BA), Political Science (MA, PhD) and Conflict Analysis and Resolution(MA) programs. The purpose of the simulation was to have the students develop a deeper understanding of confidence building measures and the interworking of the mediation process as a whole. To accomplish this, traditional top-down approaches to mediation were supplanted with cross-stitching, a mediation tool designed for confidence building between parties by encouraging representatives from different segments of society to share their perspectives and their view of human security and needs with various segments from all parties. The students were divided into three teams representing the international community, Turkish Cypriots, and Greek Cypriots, with each team having two facilitators. After days of preparation, it was conducted in two separate phases: the first, a five hour session was held at the IPC headquarters in Karaköy; and the second, a one hour session took place at the Marmara Hotel.

The workshop titled “Faraway, So Close? Reaching beyond the Pro/Contra Controversy on Turkey’s EU Accession” was held at IPC in June 2-4, 2011. The two-day workshop co-organized by IPC and Freie Universitat, Berlin, started with an opening reception where Thomas Risse presented his new book: A Community of Europeans: Transnational Identities and the Public Sphere. Among the topics discussed were historical institutionalist and comparative approaches to Europeanization, norm diffusion or normativity and migration as well as the impact of the EU norms on migrant flows.