Event Summary: A Private Roundtable on Eastern Mediterranean and Turkish Foreign Policy

On September 18, the SETA Foundation at Washington, DC hosted a private roundtable discussion on Eastern Mediterranean and Turkish foreign policy with the Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey, Alparslan Bayraktar, Senior Advisor to the President, Gülnur Aybet, and a member of the Presidential Security and Foreign Policy Council, Akif Kireçci. The conversation was moderated by Kadir Üstun, Executive Director at the SETA Foundation at Washington, DC.

Tensions regarding the positioning of Eastern Mediterranean countries and Turkey have highlighted the energy crisis in the region and brought to light many new foreign policy perspectives. Recent discoveries of natural gas reserves around Egypt, Cyprus, Israel, and Greece in the Mediterranean Sea have begun to shape energy policy and pose new challenges. This energy crisis is proving to be a game changer for Eastern Mediterranean and Turkish politics, and future developments will play a significant role in the trajectory of the region.