BY GILA BENMAYOR
HURRIYET- Speaking at the opening of the recent Fifth Sakip Sabanci Conference at the Brookings Institution in Washington, Guler Sabanci said that one aim of the gathering is to provide students with the opportunity to better understand the world's complexities. This conference, which has been featuring famous speakers for the last five years at this leading US think-tank, is watched by Sabanci University students in Istanbul via interactive video link, which allows them to ask the speakers questions.
This year Chris Patten, the Oxford University rector and former Hong Kong governor, spoke to the students. His speech on the challenges of multilateralism for Turkey, Europe and the US had messages for the young people, as it sought to answer the question 'What is today's Europe?' at a time when everybody is very confused about Turkey's EU membership bid. I sometimes hear young people asking why Turkey is working so hard for membership, as the EU will soon be a thing of the past. Patten said that even if the EU has certain weaknesses, it carries a visionary and even a revolutionary torch. He added that he has always been outspoken in his support for Turkey's membership, which would contribute to Europe both economically and politically.
'Turkey clearly has to choose what kind of country it wants to be - to move forward or go back,' he added. 'I hope it will choose to continue along the road to becoming a more successful, more daring country building on the successes of recent years.' I won't go into all the details of his speech, but political scientist Francis Fukuyama also suggested that Turkey should decide what path it will take. So there are a lot of question marks in the minds of people about Turkey's future.
Let's see who attended the lunch at Brookings following the Sabanci Conference: Guler Sabanci, Former Economy Minister Kemal Dervis, Fukuyama, Patten, former US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, and former US Ambassadors to Ankara Mark Grossman and Morton Abramowitz. Fukuyama also said that the ambiguities about Turkey's EU membership are gradually mounting. Fukuyama believes that speaking clearly about such issues as identity and ethnic origin would contribute to our EU process.
Dervis, a new Brookings vice president and also a member of Sabanci University's International Consultancy Council, said that the mechanism of joining the EU by meeting its conditions is no longer operational. He added that Turkey is stronger now than it was 10 years ago and that in the wake of a paradigm shift, Turkey now has to enter a process in which it will be more active. This is what they said about Turkish-EU relations in Washington.