PANEL: The Cyprus Peace Talks: Prospects & Challenges in a Post-Referendum Period
14 April 2017 13:00 to 14:30 | Ankara
The British Institute at Ankara, Tahran Caddesi 24, 06700
Panelists: Esra Çuhadar Associate Professor, Bilkent University, Neophytos Loizides Professor, University of Kent. Chair: Leonidas Karakatsanis Assistant Director, The British Institute at Ankara
Held at a point when a positive conclusion of the Cyprus Peace Talks seemed still possible, the panel reflected on the role that yet another referendum over the proposed solution could play. Panelists considered the intersections and connections between refenernda and their direct democracy dynamics and reflected on the challenges posed on, and prospects opened for the ongoing Cyprus Peace Talks.
A lunchtime Discussion Panel held at The British Institute at Ankara
Esra Çuhadar Associate Professor, Bilkent University
Neophytos Loizides Professor, University of Kent
CHAIR (with comment)
Leonidas Karakatsanis Assistant Director, The British Institute at Ankara
An unprecedented upsurge in decision making through referendums has recently affected all major 'players' historically involved in the Cyprus issue: Greece (bailout referendum 2015), UK (Brexit referendum 2016) and Turkey (upcoming Turkish presidential system referendum). Since a positive conclusion of the Cyprus Peace Talks would lead to yet another referendum over the proposed solution, this panel will consider the intersections and connections between these direct democracy dynamics and reflect on the challenges posed on, and prospects opened for the ongoing Cyprus Peace Talks.
Explore Media Coverage of the event:
in Daily Sabah
In the National Herald
Dr. Esra Çuhadar is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Bilkent University in Turkey and a Senior Fellow at the Inclusive Peace and Transition Initiative at the Graduate Institute, Geneva. Dr. Cuhadar received her M.A and Ph.D. and an advanced graduate certificate in Applied Conflict Resolution from Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. Dr. Cuhadar's research interests include conflict resolution and political psychology. Her research has been published in academic journals such as Political Psychology, Computers in Human Behavior,Negotiation and Conflict Management Research, Negotiation Journal, International Negotiation, Journal of Peace Research, Mediterranean Politics, International Studies Perspectives, Turkish Studies and Perceptions and also in various book chapters. Dr Cuhadar received one of the Young Scientist Awards (BAGEP) by the Science Academy in Turkey and received research grants from USIP, Sabanci University, TUBITAK, and German Marshall Fund. Besides her research in peacebuilding and conflict resolution, she has conducted numerous trainings and consultations in negotiation and mediation processes for various groups and organizations in Turkey and elsewhere. She has been working as a regional mediator for the World Bank in Turkey and Caucasus since 2011. She was elected as a member of the International Society for Political Psychology Governing Council (2010-2012) and also served as a board member of the European Mediation Network Initiative.
Professor Neophytos Loizides is the author of The Politics of Majority Nationalism: Framing Peace, Stalemates, and Crises published by Stanford University Press (2015) and Designing Peace: Cyprus and Institutional Innovations in Divided Societies published by the University of Pennsylvania Press (2016). He is also the co-editor (with Oded Haklai) of Settlers in Contested Lands: Territorial Disputes and Ethnic Conflicts and has authored more than thirty academic articles and book chapters in the areas of nationalism, forced displacement and conflict regulation in deeply divided societies including most recently work published in the European Journal of Political Research, the International Journal of Constitutional Law, and Political Psychology (forthcoming). Professor Loizides has also served as a consultant to various governments and international organisations including the Council of Europe and regularly contributes commentaries to international media such as the Guardian, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
Dr. Leonidas Karakatsanis is the assistant director at the British Institute at Ankara. He holds a PhD in Ideology and Discourse Analysis from the University of Essex. He is the author of Turkish-Greek Relations. Rapprochement, Civil Society and the Politics of Friendship (Routledge 2014) where he specifically explored the role of the Greek and Turkish civil societies in promoting peace. His most recent publications include two edited volumes: Bordered Places | Bounded Times Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Turkey (together with E. Baysal, BIAA 2017) and The Politics of Culture in Turkey, Greece & Cyprus: Performing the Left Since the Sixties (together with N. Papadogiannis, Routledge 2017). He has researched and published on issues related to the politics of identity and reconciliation, civil society, nationalism, minority rights, borders and migration. His current research focuses on the relation between affects, contentious politics and reconciliation in South-eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and the Middle East.