Thread by @MaMaMia73189983

Friends of Turkey in the European Parliament 🧵

Connecting the dots
In March 2010, members from the EPP, S&D, ALDE, Greens/EFA and ECR groups founded “Friends of Turkey” in the European Parliament. 77 MEPs joined and were active members during the 7th legislative term

2009-2014, Alojz Peterle (EPP) chairman of the group
09.2014, group re-launched, new co-chairs Artis Pabriks (EPP) and Ismail Ertug (S&D)
Friends of Turkey is conceived as a platform for discussion where MEPs can contribute to the improvement of EU-Turkey relations
Is there more?

The group organizes formal and informal meetings with European and Turkish officials and it has served as a platform for high-level discussions including all the different actors involved in EU-Turkey relations.

Laura Batalla Adam is the current Secretary General of the group.

Today, Laura Batalla Adam is the Secretary General of the European Parliament Turkey Forum (previously Friends of Turkey). The EP-Turkey Forum is composed of 60 MEPs coming from the major political groups in the European Parliament.

Before that she was the Head of Office and Political Advisor to a member of the Greens/European Free Alliance group.

turkey-europe-future-forum.com/en/fellows/lau…

"The Turkey Europe Future Forum is a project of Stiftung Mercator in cooperation with TUSIAD."
Who is TUSIAD?

tusiad.org/en/tusiad/about

And I am thinking, Ok- good job.. then I look at the aims of this organisation 🤔🤔

Let's take a step back, how about the founder?

"The Turkey Europe Future Forum is a project of Stiftung Mercator in cooperation with TUSIAD."

Who is Stiftung Mercator?

What are they about then?
In their own words ...

How about their members, reserachers, alliances?
Excellent lists of ppl .. check it out for your self

medam-migration.eu/experts/

Very active organisation, with many events medam-migration.eu/dialogue/

Many publications too, and fields of reserch, oh yes.
Remember while you read all this, that "The Turkey Europe Future Forum is a project of Stiftung Mercator in cooperation with TUSIAD."

One of their projects is medam-migration.eu/research/proje…

Back to Europe Parliament Turkey Forum, chairman Laura Batalla Adam turkey-europe-future-forum.com/en/#programm

I am trying to find information on the board of this organisation. Who is the chairman, or even vice-chairman.
Nowhere to find on their webpage.

But then again google is humans best friend these days, so I kept on digging .. and there is af Vice-Chair EU-Turkey Forum to find. It is @Tineke_Strik herself, known for another position as Greens/EFA Member of European Parliament, nut nevertheless
hasna.org/civil-society-…

So when @Tineke_Strik is so interested in protecting the borders from @Frontex and not vice versa, there is an understandable reason.

@threadreaderapp pls unrol :)

The reason for this research was this picture, credits @HFirstpriest - thank u for the inspiration

https://twitter.com/tineke_strik/status/1364143907966189568