Gelisim News

International Middle East Symposium will be held at IGU for the 8th time

The 8th Middle East Symposium, hosted by Istanbul Gelisim University for seven years, will take place on May 9-10-11, 2023. This year, the symposium, which will be organized with the theme of "The Middle East in the Spiral of Expectations and Uncertainties", is expected to attend the symposium, both domestic and foreign as in previous years.

The symposium will take place under the leadership of Istanbul Gelisim University Political and Social Research Center, in the organization of many national and international stakeholders such as Diplomacy Foundation, Middle East, Eurasia, Asia-Pacific Studies Platform, Turkish-Arab-African Strategic Cooperation Council and Strategic Research Center. Hosting the organization for seven years, IGU will organize the Middle East Symposium for the 8th time this year on 9-10-11 May 2023.

“The Middle East has been exposed to different scenarios of great international powers”

Giving information about the symposium, Prof. Dr. Senol Durgun also evaluated the recent processes in the Middle East and stated the following: “As the Middle East region has been under the influence of great powers for more than a century, it is exposed to different scenarios of international great powers. This causes serious problems within the region and prevents the region from attaining political stability. In particular, the struggle for dominance of the great powers over the region has led to the emergence of various problems such as ethnic and sectarian in the social field. In recent years, with the increasing political instability after the Arab Spring, the region has been faced with a serious upheaval, and they have also had to face war-related refugee problems from geographies where Muslim peoples live, especially the Middle East. In the face of problems that increase and diversify day by day, the region is almost in a spiral of uncertainty and expectations.”

High interest in the symposium

Academicians from different countries will participate in the symposium, which aims to shed light on the reasons for the spiral of expectation and uncertainty in the Middle East, and by creating a scientific discussion environment and offering new initiatives to the search for solutions to the political problems of regional actors. Prof. Dr. Şenol Durgun: “It will be one of the most significant benefits of the symposium to discuss the dimensions of the problems that arise with this symposium, what the solution might be in this context, by researchers who are experts in the subject, for three days. As it can be understood from here, we can say there is already a high interest in our symposium, which was held for the eighth time.”

As in previous years, hundreds of researchers from national and international institutions are expected to attend the symposium. Interested researchers can find detailed information about the symposium on ortadogu.gelisim.edu.tr.