Overview

The Atlantic Council US-Turkey Congressional-Parliamentary Fellowship Program aims at engaging and connecting US congressional and Turkish parliamentary staff to build knowledge on bilateral relations and dialogue among key constituencies on both sides of the Atlantic. Through a series of lecturespeer-to-peer discussions and a study tour, Fellows will gain a better understanding of bilateral relations with a new perspective on mutually pertinent issues and will also have the opportunity of meeting with leading experts.

The Atlantic Council IN TURKEY’s US-Turkey Congressional-Parliamentary Fellowship* is a non-partisan fellowship program that connects staff members from the US Congress and Turkish Parliament and engages through a multifaceted curriculum featuring leading experts on US and transatlantic relations with Turkey. Through an eight-month nonresidential and unpaid fellowship, staffers will participate in off-the-record lectures, interactive discussions and a study tour led by experts to address issues critical to bilateral relations and the region.

2023-2024 Fellowship

We launched our second fellowship class in November 2023.

2021-2022 program

During our inaugural Fellowship in 2021-2022, seminars covered topics including:

  • Turkey’s foreign policy history: From its origins to our days with a focus on US-Turkey relations
  • Turkey’s past and current governmental systems
  • US history overview and the federal government system
  • Turkish and US foreign policy priorities
  • Turkey’s foreign policy during AKP era and current state of US-Turkey relations
  • US-Turkey relations in light of current geopolitical conflicts
  • EU-Turkey relations
  • Turkey’s energy sector and US-Turkey energy relations
  • A regional issue at the crossroads of US-Turkey and EU-Turkey relations: The Eastern Mediterranean

Fellowship trips to the United States and Turkey

To conclude the fellowship, our Turkish fellows made a trip to the US between April 14-18, 2022, to meet with leading officials, experts and learn more about their counterparts’ history and culture.

Between May 23-27, 2022, the US fellows made a trip to Turkey to participate in discussions and activities to build knowledge of Turkey and bilateral relations through meetings with officials and experts, engage in dialogue with their Turkish counterparts and visit historically and culturally significant sites.

United States Mission Turkey

*This fellowship is funded by a grant from the U.S. Mission to Türkiye.

The Atlantic Council in Turkey, which is in charge of the Turkey program, aims to promote and strengthen transatlantic engagement with the region by providing a high-level forum and pursuing programming to address the most important issues on energy, economics, security, and defense.