At ICDS on 4th August, Matthew Bryza talked to a small group of diplomats, policymakers, foreign policy thinkers and members of the Estonian Parliament about the attempted coup in Turkey and its impact on international relations. Ambassador Bryza is a former Director of the ICDS and has 23 years of experience in the U.S. diplomatic service.
Ambassador Bryza started with some essential, but disputed questions about the attempted coup and its aftermath: Was there even a coup? Was it staged? Who was responsible? How has the Turkish government and the international community responded? He went on to discuss how the coup has affected Turkish-EU and Turkish-U.S. relations, and the challenges that the United States will face in improving its relationship with Ankara. One of his major themes was the differing interpretations of the event and how the public comments of the various players (Turkey, the US and the EU) is feeding a “parallel of mutually exclusive narratives.”