Counterterrorism as an Area of Cooperation and Challenge to Turkey – The European Union Relations

Turkey’s fight against terrorism is an issue that has a long history and goes back to before the problem emerged as a global one after the 9/11 terror attacks. Turkey’s struggle with terrorism began in the 1960s, with extreme left/right-wing political movements, internationalized when ASALA (Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia) started to target Turkish diplomats outside the country in the 1970s.[1] Later on, with the emergence of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) in 1978, and with its attacks on Turkish security forces and civilians since 1984, terrorism became a huge domestic problem with international connections. As for the recent wave of global terrorism in the 21st century, Turkey became the target of both al-Qaida and ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) terror attacks.

Haldun Yalçınkaya, Prof. Dr., TOBB-ETÜ

He was born in 1970 in Bursa. After his primary and secondary education, he graduated from Kuleli in 1988 and from Harbiye in 1992. Prof. Dr. Haldun Yalçınkaya received a master’s degree in International Relations from Istanbul University with the thesis “Peace Keeping” in 1997; In 2004, he completed his doctoral education with his thesis on the subject of “The Transformation of War”. After his doctorate, he did academic studies at Oxford University, US Military Academy (West Point) and the University of Florida. YALÇINKAYA, who started to work at TOBB University of Economics and Technology in 2013 after serving as the Dean of the Turkish Military Academy for more than ten years, still serves as the Head of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at TOBB ETU. Prof.Dr.Haldun Yalçınkaya’s domestic and foreign books, articles and reports on war, peacekeeping, new actors on the battlefield, Foreign Terrorist Fighters have been published. He is also one of the coordinators of Turkey Peacekeeping Database (TÜBAKOV) (http://www.uik.org.tr/tubakov/) and Security Portal (trguvenlikportali.com) projects.

Markos Papakonstantis, Asst. Prof. Dr., Panteion University

Lawyer Markos Papakonstantis is an assistant professor at Panteion University in Athens. He teaches European law and EU policies. He has taught at many universities in Greece and abroad. He has worked as an external collaborator of the European Commission in Morocco, as a collaborator of Greek MEPs and as a scientific collaborator in the offices of Greek ministers. He has made a large number of publications and presentations in Greece and abroad on issues of national and European immigration policy, EU asylum policy, EU external relations, EU internal security, CFSP, European institutions, management of the EU external borders.