• GRIPS faculty members and students do not have to RSVP.  Please simply come and join us.

• If you are out of GRIPS, please send an e-mail to  y-ichikawagrips.ac.jp by Friday, July 14 with this title “Register to the GRIPS-SISP Seminar on July 19th”.

• Registration email must include; 1. Name, 2. Affiliation, 3. Title, 4. Email-address or phone number

• If you are arriving by a private car, please let us know the car information (type, color, and number) in advance so that we can register it for campus entry permission.

MODERATOR:      Prof. Yoko IWAMA (GRIPS)

COMMENTATOR:  Oktay Kurtulus (PhD Student, SISP, GRIPS)

OUTLINE:

        The aim of this lecture is to understand the meaning of 2017 national referendum in Turkish political history.

              As a result of the national referendum held on 16 April 2017, Turkish political system will be completely changed from parliament system to presidential system by 1 November 2019. Turkish president will be “strong president” who will get the executive power and heavily affect the legislative and judicial processes. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and ruling AK party (Justice and Development Party) supported the system change. Erdoğan is the leading candidate for “strong president”.

Yet, the process and the result of national referendum clarified the difficult situations for Erdoğan and AK party. Presidential system was supported by a slim majority of 51.4%. 48.5% of voters opposed the presidential system. Turkish society deepened the polarization for presidential system. Also, Turkey and EU countries, especially, Netherlands, Germany, and Austria, increased tension because of AK party’s “yes” campaign for referendum in these countries.

        In order to understand the meaning of 2017 national referendum in Turkish political history, Professor Imai will explain (1) the outline of national referendum and its result, (2) “strong” presidential system and the agenda of domestic politics in Turkey, and (3) the recent Turkey-EU relations.

PROFILE:

        Kohei IMAI is a Research Fellow of Institute of Developing Economies (IDE). He received his BA and MA degrees from Chuo University, and concluded his Ph.D. in the Department of International Relations, Middle East Technical University, Turkey in 2011 and Graduate School of Law (Major of Political Science) at Chuo University in 2013 (dual Ph.D.). He was a Research Fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) from 2013 to 2016.

        He was awarded a Government scholarship of Republic of Turkey in 2006, and the scholarship of Ph.D. program in the abroad from 2008 to 2011 from Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan. The title of his Ph.D. dissertation written in English is The Possibility and Limit of Liberal Middle Power Policies: The Case of Turkish Foreign Policy toward the Middle East during the AKP Period.

        He is the author of several books and articles on Turkish foreign policy and the theory of International Relations including “Turkey’s Norm Diffusion Policies toward the Middle East: Turkey’s Role of Norm Entrepreneur and Norm Transmitter”, Ankara University Faculty of Political Science, The Turkish Yearbook of International Relations, Vol.42, 2012 (in English), “Comparative Middle Power Diplomacies: The Cases of Turkey and Japan”, Middle East and Asian Project, (MAP) Bulletin, November 2013 (in English), Turkish foreign policy toward the Middle East during the Post-Cold War period, Minerva Shobo, February, 2015 (in Japanese), Contemporary history of Turkey, Chuokoronshinsha, January 2017 (in Japanese), and “Rethinking the Insulator State: Turkey’s border security and the Syrian civil war”, Eurasia Border Review, Vol. 7, No.1, 2017 (in English) .

• GRIPS faculty members and students do not have to RSVP.  Please simply come and join us.

• If you are out of GRIPS, please send an e-mail to  y-ichikawagrips.ac.jp by Friday, July 14 with this title “Register to the GRIPS-SISP Seminar on July 19th”.

• Registration email must include; 1. Name, 2. Affiliation, 3. Title, 4. Email-address or phone number

• If you are arriving by a private car, please let us know the car information (type, color, and number) in advance so that we can register it for campus entry permission.