Turkey-EU Cooperation on Counterterrorism

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A High Profile Meeting on Turkey-EU Cooperation on Counterterrorism was hosted by the European Neighbourhood Council (ENC) and the Center for Middle Eastern and Strategic Studies (ORSAM). The event consisted of two sessions, the first one dealing with foreign fighters and ISIS and the second one focusing on the concept of ethnic radicalization by examining the case study of PKK. Among the distinguished participants were Fatma Ceren Yazgan, Deputy Director General for Security and Intelligence at the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affair and Angelina Eichhorst, Director for Western Europe, Western Balkans and Turkey at the European External Action Service (EEAS). The first panel discussed the complexities of ISIS and foreign fighters in the Middle East, as well as fringe-sympathiser groups in Turkey and across Europe. In the second panel, several speakers pointed towards the urgent need to tackle radicalisation across European communities, while citing on-the-ground and operation-level concerns about communities with strong mobilization and structural capabilities that include PKK and ISIS sympathiser cells.