IKV organised a webinar entitled “The Russia-West Tension: Implications for Turkish Foreign Policy and European Security Architecture” on 2 March 2022. During the webinar, moderated by IKV Deputy Secretary General M. Gökhan Kilit, distinguished academics and experts discussed the Russia-Ukraine war from perspectives of NATO, EU, Russia and Turkey.

The speakers of the webinar were Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM) Chairman, former NATO Assistant Secretary General and Turkey's former Permanent Representative to NATO Ambassador (R) Tacan İldem, IKV Secretary General Assoc. Prof. Çiğdem Nas, Kadir Has University Vice Rector Prof. Mitat Çelikpala, Sabancı University Faculty Member and Istanbul Policy Center (IPC) Senior Scholar, Research and Academic Affairs Coordinator Prof. Senem Aydın-Düzgit, Marmara University Faculty Member Assoc. Prof. Behlül Özkan.

Underlining that the current crisis in Ukraine is “transformative”, Prof. Mitat Çelikpala emphasized that Russia sees itself as one of the three great powers that can take independent decisions together with China and the US. Evaluating the current developments from the perspective of NATO, Ambassador (R) Tacan İldem stated that President Putin acts with the understanding that the countries around Russia are less sovereign.Stating that EU and especially Germany got rid of many historical taboos due to the crisis, Prof. Senem Aydın-Düzgit pointed out that EU policies have undergone a tremendous change and transformation. Analysing the crisis from the perspective of Russia, Assoc. Prof. Behlül Özkan emphasized that Russia's actions are based on a doctrine and warned against the risk that the situation could deteriorate further. Assoc. Prof. Çiğdem Nas discussed whether the crisis might have a transformative effect in terms of Turkey-EU relations and stated that EU enlargement could be affected with differentiated integration becoming a more prominent theme.