The U.S.-Turkey “Safe Zone” Agreement: What Does It Mean?

SETA Foundation Posted On August 4, 2015
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Turkey announced that it would now allow the use of the Incirlik airbase by U.S. air forces against ISIL in Syria. The decision came soon after the Suruc bombing on July 20, 2015 and Turkey has been conducting operations against ISIL and PKK across the border with Syria and Iraq. The shift in policy entails a proposed “safe zone” free of ISIL presence although further details of the U.S.-Turkey agreement remain unclear. Join us for a discussion on the U.S.-Turkey agreement and its implications for the conflict in Syria as well as for Iraq.

*A light lunch will be provided.

Moderator:

Kilic B. Kanat, Research Director, the SETA Foundation at Washington D.C.

Speakers: 

Sabiha Senyucel, Research Director, the Center for Public Policy and Democracy Studies (PODEM)

Mark Perry, Independent Author

Melissa Dalton, Fellow and Chief of Staff, International Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

Kadir Ustun, Executive Director, the SETA Foundation at Washington D.C.

Kilic B. Kanat is the Research Director at the SETA Foundation at Washington DC. He is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Penn State University, Erie.

Sabiha Şenyücel serves as Research Director at PODEM, the Center for Public Policy and Democracy Studies, an Istanbul-based think tank established in 2015. She previously chaired the Foreign Policy Program at TESEV, the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation. Şenyücel currently pursues a doctoral degree in Political Science at Bilgi University Istanbul.

Mark Perry is a foreign policy analyst, historian and author. He is the author of nine books including Four Stars, Eclipse: The Last Days of the CIA and Talking To Terrorists. His most recent book The Most Dangerous Man in America: The Making of Douglas MacArthur was published in 2014.

Melissa Dalton is a fellow and chief of staff of the CSIS International Security Program (ISP). Her research focuses on security cooperation, U.S. defense policy in the Middle East, and defense strategy and policy. As chief of staff, she advises the director of ISP on a broad range of strategic and management issues. She joined CSIS in September 2014 as a visiting fellow in ISP and as a 2014–2015 Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow.

Kadir Ustun is the Executive Director at the SETA Foundation at Washington, D.C. He also serves as an Assistant Editor of Insight Turkey, an academic journal published by the SETA Foundation.