Conservative Friends of Turkey

Conservative Friends of Turkey (CFT) aims to promote links between Turkey and the Conservative Party at all levels.

CFT works with a plethora of individuals, political organisations, academia and business associations in pursuit of this fundamental aim. Its activities range from encouraging an active debate on the Turkey-UK strategic partnership to raising awareness of the Conservative Party within the Turkish community in the UK.

Rt Hon William Hague MP at the CFT launch in 2008

Latest news:

- Elections for London Mayor and the London Assembly will take place on Thursday, 3 May. BackBoris2012 is an interactive, grassroots campaign, and with a variety of events in all London boroughs, it is a great way to get more involved. You can make a difference with just an hour or two of your time: leafleting at Tube stations, knocking on doors on the election day, or ringing voters along with senior Tories. Please get in touch if you want to join us and help the campaign.

You can find Mayor Boris Johnson's 9 point plan for a Greater London, reasons why London can't afford Ken Livingstone, and more on the campaign website: http://www.backboris2012.com

- A fragile ceasefire is in place in Syria but tensions are high in Turkey after the cross-border gunfire at the refugee camp and as the number of refugees reached nearly 25,000. Prime Minister Erdogan repeated calls for UN action against Syria, and referred to Article 5 of the Nato treaty, which calls an attack on one Nato member like Turkey an attack on all members (Daily Telegraph). Istanbul recently hosted the Friends of Syria, with ministers from more than 70 Western and Arab countries seeking to increase pressure on President Assad. Senior commanders of the armed Syrian opposition groups are also based in Turkey.

A analysis by Reuters can be found here, and an Op Ed by CFT member Dr Gulnur Aybet compares the current dilemma of the international community with Bosnia in 1992 (Today's Zaman). Oxford professor Timothy Garton Ash looks at the issue from a historian's viewpoint (Guardian).

Meanwhile over the last weekend the P5+1 group (UK, China, France, Russia, US plus Germany) gathered in Istanbul to negotiate with Iran on its nuclear program. The talks were reported to be 'constructive', and the parties agreed to reconvene in Baghdad on 23 May (Bloomberg).

- The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee has published its report on UK-Turkey relations and Turkey's regional role. Covering a wide range of issues from Turkey's domestic politics and human rights to the Arab Spring and EU accession, the Committee concludes that there is significant potential to expand UK-Turkey economic relations as well as the foreign policy partnership.

The entire report can be found on the committee's website. Foreign Office already responded to the report, the official Government response is expected in June.

- President Abdullah Gul was in the UK for a 3-day state visit in Nov 2011. Welcomed by the Queen, the Turkish head of state attended a state banquet at the Buckingham Palace, had detailed talks with Prime Minister Cameron, delivered Wilton Park's inaugural annual address, and gave speeches at the CBI annual conference and at the Parliament. You can find the transcripts of all his speeches here.

London's Pall Mall during President Gul's visit

During the course of the visit, Foreign Minister Hague gave more details about the "new special relationship" between Britain and Turkey in a Daily Telegraph article.

- CFT hosted a fringe event at the Party Conference in Manchester on Oct 3, 2011 - "Turkey-UK Strategic Partnership in a Changing World", with Europe Minister Rt Hon David Lidington MP, HE Turkish Ambassador Unal Cevikoz and Dr Gulnur Aybet, University of Kent. (Notes)

Rt Hon David Lidington MP, Ambassador Cevikoz, Dr Aybet

- CFT and the Young Conservative Europe Group (YCEG) held a panel to discuss the developments in British & European cooperation with Turkey - covering foreign policy, trade and civil society on May 10, 2011. Panellists were John Peet, Europe Editor of the Economist, Maurice Fraser, Senior Fellow in European Politics at the LSE and Richard Balfe, former MEP. (Notes)

 John Peet, Richard Balfe, Maurice Fraser

(photo credit to YCEG and Kat Antosova Photography)