Turkey's moment of crisis or opportunity? by CMEC published on 2021-05-27T09:40:46Z This CMEC Podcast is part of CMEC's new Turkey series. Turkey is living through tumultuous times. 2021 started with student protests at Istanbul’s Bogazici University over the appointment of a leading supporter of Turkish President Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party as university rector; Ankara caused shockwaves by withdrawing from the Council of Europe’s Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, also known as the Istanbul Convention; President Erdogan then promptly fired the third Turkish central bank governor in less than 20 months. Meanwhile, arrests of high-profile members of Turkey’s third largest parliamentary party, the Pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party otherwise known as the HDP, continued. Meanwhile, the chaos and stresses of COVID which have done little to help the country’s troubled economy. In the first of a series of podcasts on Turkey, CMEC hears from Turkey expert and former Turkish opposition MP Dr Aykan Erdemir. Aykan is senior director of the Foundation for Defence of Democracies Turkey Program in Washington DC, and a former Republican People's Party (CHP) member of the Turkish Parliament up until 2015. He was a prominent member of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, and is a leading advocate in promoting pluralism and religious as well as ethnic freedom and rights in Turkey and he is a founding member of the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief. You can follow Aykan for all things Turkey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/aykan_erdemir --- This podcast is proudly sponsored by Karkin & Yuksel, a Turkish law firm based in London. You can find more information about Karkin & Yuksel, their London office and their practise areas on their website, www.karkinyuksel.co.uk. Karkın & Yüksel is a full-service law firm providing a diverse range of legal services, operating from the Gherkin in the City. With a global network and over 25 years of Turkish legal expertise, Karkın & Yüksel offers expert counsel on Turkish law and Turkey related matters across a range of sectors and specialisms and also advises on international law especially international arbitration and international transactions covering multiple jurisdictions. Murat Karkın and Cüneyt Yüksel are leading Turkish lawyers who previously founded and were the Co-Managing Partners of the largest law firm in Turkey, YükselKarkın Attorney Partnership, which they established in 2006. Murat Karkın and Cüneyt Yüksel were the heads of the Dispute Resolution and Corporate departments. The firm received recognition from a number of international award directories, including “Leading Firm” and “Top Ranked Global Firm”. For consecutive years both Murat Karkın and Cüneyt Yüksel recognised individually as Tier 1 and “Leading Individuals” within Corporate and Dispute Resolution work.
