Please join the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED)
for a conversation with:
Can Dündar
Co-editor-in-chief, #Özgürüz
Opening remarks by:
Howard Eissenstat
Professor, St. Lawrence University;
Nonresident Senior Fellow, POMED
Moderated by:
Elmira Bayrasli
CEO and Co-founder, Foreign Policy Interrupted;
Professor, Globalization and International Affairs Program, Bard College
Background
Under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey has become increasingly authoritarian at home and assertive abroad. Mass crackdowns, intensified since Turkey’s failed coup attempt in 2016, have resulted in more than 150,000 detentions. The media has been a main target: more than 150 media outlets have been shut down, and Turkey today is the top jailer of journalists globally. Amidst this backdrop, Erdoğan has announced his plans for a third military operation into northern Syria, threatening America’s Kurdish partners in the fight against the Islamic State. In a major policy shift on October 6, President Donald Trump endorsed Erdoğan’s planned incursion, and the two leaders are expected to meet at the White House next month.
To discuss all of these developments, POMED is pleased to host Can Dündar, the former editor-in-chief of Turkey’s main opposition newspaper, Cumhuriyet. A prominent target of Erdoğan’s media crackdown, Dündar is being prosecuted for exposing Turkey’s illicit weapons shipments to Syria and is currently being tried in absentia in at least two other cases. Since 2016, Dündar has lived in exile in Berlin, where he produces the online magazine #Özgürüz (We are Free). He is the recipient of POMED’s 2019 Leaders for Democracy Award and several other honors.
Friday, October 18
10:00 – 11:30 a.m.
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
1779 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC
Space is limited. Please note that advance registration and confirmation are required. Please RSVP by October 17.
Admittance is only available to confirmed registered guests.
THIS EVENT WILL BE HELD UNDER THE CHATHAM HOUSE RULE.