Soner Cagaptay, Director of the Turkish Research Program, Washington Institute May 6, 6 PM 2021 (NOTE DATE CHANGE)
Turkey has been a member of NATO for nearly seven decades. Its candidacy for membership in the European Union has been unsuccessful for many years because of its human rights violations and deficiencies in its rule of law. Erdogan, a devout Muslim, served as Turkey’s prime minister from 2003 until 2014 when his Justice and Development Party, or AKP, took power in the 2002 elections. Since 2014, he has served as President. Early on he made an effort to improve human rights practices and press freedoms. The goal was to demonstrate that Islam and democracy could coexist, which would enable Turkey to assume a leadership role in the Muslim world and have an influence over politics in the Middle East. This approach also would enhance the world’s image of Erdogan.
Pursuing this strategy, Erdogan became one of Turkey’s most “consequential leaders.” In July 2016, a failed coup attempt occurred, which was blamed without evidence on the movement led by Fethullah Gulen, an influential Turkish cleric in the U.S. This event enabled Erdogan to enhance greatly his authoritarian direction with passage of a constitutional referendum in 2017. As a result, Erdogan became the head of state, head of government, and head of the ruling party. He also began a witch hunt to subdue his military and domestic opponents.
With his autocratic domestic position solidified, Erdogan has also become more emboldened in his foreign policy agenda. Turkish military attacked the Kurdish forces that fought the Islamic State in Syria alongside U.S. troops. He challenged Greek and Cypriot sovereignty in the Eastern Mediterranean by sending Turkish research vessels along with the Navy in search of oil and gas resources. He spent $2.4 billion on the S-400 antiaircraft missiles from Russia despite strong opposition by NATO and the U.S. He was warned in making this decision that Turkey could not participate in the U.S. F-35 fighter jet program. The U.S. followed up by placing sanctions on Turkey.
Our speaker, Soner Cagaptay, is eminently qualified to address what is next under Erdogan. Cagaptay joined the Washington Institute in 2002 and is the Beyer Family fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program. He has written extensively on U.S.-Turkish relations, Turkish domestic politics, and Turkish nationalism, publishing in scholarly journals and major international print media.
Since 2006, Cagaptay has published four books on Turkey with the most recent one in 2019, Erdogan’s Empire: Turkey and the Politics of the Middle East. He has taught courses at Yale University, Georgetown University, and Princeton University.
Cagaptay received his B.A. in international relations at Marmara University. His Master of Philosophy and Ph.D. in history are from Yale University.
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