The Centre for Turkey Studies (CEFTUS) is pleased to invite you to a public forum on Turkey-Russia Relations with Dr Natasha Kuhrt of the Dept of War Studies King’s College (TBC) and Ezgi Basaran, journalist and columnist, and visitor at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University.
Turkey-Russia relations have seen considerable ups and downs over the last years, repeatedly hitting the headlines with events such as Turkey’s downing of a Russian jet to the recent assassination of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey. Relations between Russia and NATO member Turkey, which have seen a warming of late, are significant on a number of levels. Both countries stakeholders in the Syrian conflict, while Russia is a big supplier of Turkey’s energy.
Basaran will focus on political attitudes within Turkey towards Russia and international relations, while Dr Kuhrt will discuss the broader international context of Turkey-Russia relations.
This event is kindly hosted and chaired by Lord Balfe.
Please see speaker detailed biographies below.
The event will take place between 7-9PM on Wednesday, 11 January 2017 in Committee Room 4A, House of Lords.
Please note that security checks are required to enter House of Lords, we kindly ask you to arrive at 6.30PM, allowing the event to start and end on time.
We look forward to welcoming you to this event.
Speaker Biographies
Dr Natasha Kuhrt is a lecturer in the Deparment of War Studies King’s College and was the co-director of the MA International Peace and Security Programme for 2013-14. From 2002 to 2009 she lectured on M.A. International Peace and Security Programme at King’s in the School of Law before joining the Dept of War Studies. In 2009 she established the British International Studies Association Working Group on Russian and Eurasian Security and is co-convenor with Valentina Feklyunina of the Working Group. At King’s College she co-convenes the Departmental Research Group on Russian and Eurasian Security which holds regular seminars in term time. After gaining a BA first class honours in Russian and German Language and Literature at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, followed by an MA in Soviet Studies (London), she spent several years in publishing, before completing a PhD at UCL in 2000 – “Russian Policy towards China and Japan 1991-1997.” Together with her research students she has set up a Facebook page on Russian and Eurasian Security and Foreign Policies which now has at least 140 members, as well as a Twitter account (@RussEurasia).
Ezgi Basaran is a prominent journalist and a columnist in Turkey. She began her career working for the news channel, NTV, while studying at Marmara University’s Journalism Department. After graduating, she became a junior reporter in 2004 for Hürriyet, a daily of the Doğan Group and Turkey’s most widely read newspaper. In her first year, she covered the Beslan Massacre and she went on during her time at the newspaper to report from Iran, Pakistan, and Northern Iraq, and interviewed many prominent figures. In 2010, she left Hürriyet for Radikal daily, Turkey’s most prestigious liberal-left daily. She began writing a column first for two days, then five days a week. She focused on such topics as the Kurdish issue, women’s rights, the Armenian genocide, the marginalisation of non-believers and anti-Semitism in Turkey. She was appointed managing editor of the paper’s news website Radikal.com.tr in 2011. When Radikal transformed into a digital-only newspaper in 2013, she became the youngest editor-in-chief in Turkey, and only the second woman ever to hold this position. When she took over in 2011, the news site had 180,000 unique visitors daily. In two years, this figure reached one million. In May 2015 Radikal had a record 41 million visitors. She is now the coordinator of the Contemporary Turkey Program at SEESOX, visitor at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University where she explores the bridge between journalism and academia. She is about to publish a new book, with the UK publishing house I.B. Tauris, on Turkey’s Kurdish issue, titled “Frontline Turkey: The Crisis at the Heart of the Middle East.”
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