• Author
• Journalist
• Political Commentator

​Mr. Akyol is a columnist for two Turkish newspapers, Hürriyet Daily News and Star.

His articles also have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and many other publications. He studied political science and history at the Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, where he still lives.

His book, "Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty," an argument for "Muslim liberalism," was published by W.W. Norton in July, 2011. The book was praised by the Financial Times as "a forthright and elegant Muslim defense of freedom."

• Senior Lecturer, Bahcesehir University
• Columnist, Zaman and Today's Zaman

Dr. Alpay received his B.A. degree at the Political Science Faculty of Ankara University (1967) and his Ph.D. degree in political science at the Political Science Department of Stockholm University (1981). He was editor and columnist for leading Turkish daily newspapers (Cumhuriyet, Sabah, Milliyet) between 1982-2001. He served briefly as director of the Turkish Social and Economic Research Foundation in 1992 and  of the Research Center of the People's Republican Party in 1993. He has lectured in various European and Turkish universities, and was guest professor of Turkish politics at Princeton University in the spring term of 1998.  His comments on Turkish politics and often quoted in the international media.

He lectures mainly in Turkish politics and comparative politics at Bahcesehir University in Istanbul since 2011, and wrties regular columns for Zaman and Today's Zaman dailies since 2002.

His latest academic publications include: "Making Sense of Turkish Politics," The International Spectator, Vol. 43, No.3, September, 2008. "The Declining ‘Soft Power' of the EU Regarding Turkey, and its Consequences" in Peter M.E. Volten (ed.), Perceptions and misperceptions in the  EU and Turkey: Stumbling blocks on the road to accession, The Centre of European Security Studies, Groningen: 2009." The European Union and the Consolidation of Democracy in Turkey," The Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, Vol. 20, 2009. "Two Faces of the Press in Turkey: The Role of the Media in Turkey's Modernisation and Democratisation," in (Celia J. Kerslake, Kerem Öktem and Philip Robins (eds.), Turkey's Engagement with Modernity: Conflict and Change in the Twentieth Century, London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Dr. Antholis is managing director at Brookings in Washington, D.C., where he works directly with the institution's president, vice president, and board of trustees to set Brookings' strategic direction and manage its policy research. He is also a senior fellow in Governance Studies.  He is the author of the new book: Inside Out, India and China: Local Politics Go Global, which was released in September of this year. The book explores how country-sized provinces and states in the world's two biggest national are increasingly becoming global players. He also co-authored (with Strobe Talbiott) Fast Forward: Ethics and Politics in the Age of Global Warming.

From 1995 until 1999, Dr. Antholis served at the White House and U.S. Department of State. He was director of International economic affairs at the White House's National Security Council; and he served in the State Department's policy planning staff, as well as in the Economic Affairs Bureau. From 1999-2004, he was director of studies at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

He earned his doctorate from Yale University in politics (1993), and his bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia in government and foreign studies (1986).

He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with his wife Kristen Suokko and their  two daughters.

Mr. Asanakis, a partner in the Antapassis, Albouras, Asanakis Law Office, has a strong record in supporting human rights.

He is currently president of the Imvrian Association, an organization with 5,000 registered members that is active in the campaign for minority rights of the Greek population of the Turkish islands of Imvros and Tenedos on an international level as well as in the on-going social dialogue between the EU-Turkey, Greece-Turkey and within Turkey itself. This dialogue has resulted in a number of specific results including the continuous references to the matter made by the European Commission and the European Parliament in their respective progress reports on Turkey since 2004 and Resolution 1625 (2008) on Imvros and Tenedos adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the reopening of a Greek minority school for the first time since 1964.

Born in Istanbul in 1965, Mr. Asanakis is of Greek/Turkish nationality. He received his first degree in law in 1987 from the Athens National Kapodistrias University. In 1989, he received his LLM degree from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles (Institut d'Etudes Europe'ennes).

He is a regular civil society interlocutor of DG Enlargement of the European Commission, Commissioner of Human Rights of the Council of Europe, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, Greek Parliament (Committee of Hellens Abroad), and the Turkish National Assembly (External Affairs Committee).

His field of expertise is shipping and aviation law, shipping and aircraft finance, commercial law, competition law, EC law and human rights law, investment and banking, intellectual property and construction law. Acting as legal counsel, he played a key role in the release of the "Karachi 8" (the seven Greek crewmembers of the m.v. "Tasman Spirit" and a salvage master) from Pakistan in 2008.

No biography available.

Mr. Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. He also is the senior fellow in International Religious Persecution at the Institute on Religion and Public Policy and served as a special assistant to President Ronald Reagan.

He is a columnist for Forbes online.  Previously he was a columnist for antiwar.com, a nationally syndicated columnist with Copley News Service, and editor of the monthly political magazine Inquiry.

He has been widely published in such periodicals as Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Christianity Today, and World, as well as leading newspapers including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

He has written several books, including Beyond Good Intentions: A Biblical View of Politics (Crossway), Foreign Follies: America's New Global Empire (Xulon Press), Leviathan Unchained: Washington's Bipartisan Big Government Consensus (forthcoming, Xulon Press), The Politics of Envy: Statism as Theology (Transaction), and The Politics of Plunder: Misgovernment in Washington  (Transaction).

He received his B.S. in economics from Florida State University in 1976 and his J.D. from Stanford University in 1979.  He is a member of the California and Washington, D.C., bars.

• Human Rights Activist
• Turkey's Representative to the International Jurists Union

Having  graduated from the Faculty of Law at İstanbul University, Mrs. Fatma Benli is continuing her education to receive her Ph.D. degree in private law at Marmara University, also in Istanbul.

She is a member of the National Human Rights Institution of Turkey and is listed among "The 500 Most Influential  Muslims" in a publication released by Georgetown University.

She is group secretary of the Black Sea Region Group of Committee of Wise People, which is comprised of 63 members who are expected to improve the climate for peaceful relations in the country.

She is also Turkey's representative in the International Jurists Union.  Having served for 12 years in various foundations focusing on women, law and international  law, she has delivered a countless number of presentations on human rights both in Turkey and abroad.

She has books and articles published with concentration on the public sphere of freedom of expression, European  Court of Human  Rights, United National Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, violence against women, honor killings, property regimes, and human rights.

Mr. Bermek's education includes degrees in architecture, business administration as well as being a graduate of the Harvard School of Business. He began his career as an architect in 1971, but also has been active in community affairs in his native Turkey.

He is the founder of the Turkish Foundation for Education of Gifted Children (1992) as well as the CEM Foundation (1995), the biggest Alevi Organization in Turkey, whose name stands for prayer of Alevi Muslims.  He is currently president of the Federation of Alevi Foundations. He is coordinator of EU-supported projects dealing with cultural and religious projects.  His specific experiences include involvement with projects involving the countries of Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia and Azarbaijan.

Mr. Bermek has participated in various international and regional symposiums, meetings and conferences. He is also noted for his research on Turkish folklore.

Mr. Bozonelis is a regional commander of the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle, Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. He is a member of the Order's Legal Committee and chairman of the Order's Patriarchal Properties Committee, which assists the Ecumenical Patriarchate on legal issues for the return of confiscated properties and developing a legal status and standing for the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Turkey.

He received his bachelor's degree from Rutgers University and his J.D, cum laude, from George Washington University. He was nominated by the governor of New Jersey and confirmed by the State Senate as a  judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey in 1990. He served all divisions of the state judiciary until 2011.  He was a presiding judge in the Criminal Court, Equity and Family Divisions. In 2003, he was appointed as the assignment (chief) judge for Northern New Jersey Counties,  where he oversaw the administration of the state courts and 56 municipal courts therein. In that capacity, Judge Bozonelis also served as a member and chairman of the State Judicial Council, which supervises the overall state judiciary.

He has served as a judicial master and instructor for Inns of Court, Institutes for Continuing Legal Education, and Judicial College retreats. Prior to his appointment as a state judge, he served as chairman of a State District Ethics Committee, a law clerk of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C., and as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey. He presently serves as of counsel to the law firm of Graham Curtin in New Jersey, providing services in mediation, arbitration and special master matters.

He is married to Helen (Koutras) Bozonelis, an editor and author. They have two adult children, Justin and Lia.

• Reporting Judge at the Turkish Constitutional Court
• Member of Central Committee of AK Party
• Selected Jurist of the Year 2010 in Turkey

Dr. Osman Can  graduated from Ankara University Faculty of Law in 1992. In 1993, he began his career as a research assistant at the Faculty of Law in Erzincan. In 1997, he got his master's degree at the University of Cologne, Germany, on "The Legal Status President of the States in Turkish and German Constitutional Law."  In 2001, he began to work as the assistant professor of Constitutional Law at the Faculty of Law of Erzincan University.

He was appointed to the Constitutional Court as rapporteur-judge in July of 2002. During this period, considered as the most turbulent period of Turkey's political history, he was assigned the task of solving the critical constitutional problems.

In 2003, he founded the Turkish-German Forum for Public Law and became the coordinator of Turkey. He did research about individual applicants (Constitutional Complaint) and fundamental rights in several universities in Frankfurt, Cologne and Erlangen and at the German Constitutional Court. His constitutional statements on trade unions and the rights of public employee to strike were accepted by Constitutional Court and became its jurisprudence.

His suggestions about the denial of banning DEHAP (a Kurdish oppositional party) and TSIP (a socialist oppositional party), were accepted in 2005-2006.  Also in 2005, as a result of his suggestion, the privatization of Turkish Telekom and ports became possible. In 2006, he became an associate professor by unanimous decision of the Board of Higher Education Jury, and in April of this year he became a full professor.

In 2007, he was also the rapporteur-judge for the case of constitutional amendments, which provided that the President of the Republic should be elected directly by the people. His recommendation was accepted.  In 2008, he took responsibility of the case, which demanded the closure of AK Party (Ruling Party) and recommended the opinion about the denial of the request. The recommendation was accepted.  In 2010, he was a co-founder of the association Democratic Judiciary, an association calling for the impartiality and plurality of the judiciary. In that same year he was honored as the "Jurist of the Year" by the Lawyers Association.  In October of that year he returned to the academic world and left the Constitutional Court. Since July of 2011 he has been a lecturer in the Department of Constitutional Law at Marmara University.

In 2011, he was presented the "Thinker of the year" by Writers Union of Turkey.  Currently, he offers counseling based on political, legal and economical analysis, to national and international companies at macro level.  Since September of 2012, he also serves as a member of the Central Decision-Making and Administrative Committee of AK Party. He is also Member of the AK Party's Constitutional Committee, which leads the constitution-making process in Turkey.

• Human Rights Defender
• Newspaper Columnist

Mr. Cengiz is a human rights lawyer, columnist and former president of the Human Rights Association, a Turkish NGO that works on human rights issues ranging from the prevention of torture, combating against discrimination to the rights of the mentally disabled.  He is known for representing the families of the victims in the Malatya murder case, in which three Christians were killed by a group of young men with links to ultranationalist organizations.

Throughout his professional life, Mr.  Cengiz has tried to improve the human rights situation in Turkey and to uphold the rule of law.  He received his law degree from Ankara University in 1993.  He was director of Human Rights of Izmir Bar Association in 1966.  He served as the lawyer for the Alliance of Turkish Protestant Churches between 2002 and 2011.

He is also an active columnist writing for the daily Radikal,  English-language daily Today's Zaman and Al-Monitor. In 2013, he was the recipient of the Freedom Honor Award presented by the Association of Liberal Thinking.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is former United States Secretary of State, a U.S. senator from New York, and First Lady of the United States. She is frequently mentioned as a possible Democratic Party candidate for President of the United States in the 2016 election.  She is the first former First Lady to serve in the United States cabinet.

A native of Illinois, she was the first student commencement speaker at Wellesley College in 1969.  Following her speech, she received a standing ovation that lasted seven minutes.  She then earned her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1973. She met her future husband, Bill Clinton, while both were students at Yale. At Yale she served on the editorial board of the Yale Review of Law and Social Action.  Following graduation, she served as a congressional legal counsel until moving to Arkansas in 1974. She and Bill Clinton were married the following year. They have a daughter, Chelsea, who was born in 1980.

She cofounded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families in 1977.  The following year she became the first female chair of the Legal Services Corporation and in 1979 the first female partner at the Rose Law Firm.  In 1988 and 1991, the National Law Journal listed her as one of the hundred most influential lawyers in America. She also became one of only two female faculty members in the School of Law at the University of Arkansas. In her capacity as the First Lady of Arkansas, she led a task force that reformed Arkansas' education system.

Following her husband's election as President, she played a leading role in advocating the creation of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, the Adoption and Safe Families Act, and the Foster Care Independence Act.  After completion of her husband's second term as President, the family moved to New York where she was elected as the first female U.S. Senator from that state.  Running in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, she won more delegates than any other female candidate in America's history.  She was edged out by U.S. Senator Barack Obama who went on to win the national presidential election. President Obama then appointed her Secretary of State, the 67th person to hold that position. In her new position, she visited more countries than any other Secretary of State. She constantly encouraged empowerment of women everywhere. As First Lady, she argued against practices that abused women around the world and  in a speech she gave in the People's Republic of China, she noted "that it is no longer acceptable to discuss woman's rights as separate from human rights."  She was confirmed as Secretary of State by a 94-2 vote in the U.S. Senate. Her last day as Secretary of State was February 1, 2013.

She is the author of several books including "It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us," "Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pet,"  "An Invitation to the White House: At Home with History," and her biography, "Living History."

Hillary Rodham Clinton was born in Chicago, Illinois, on October 26, 1947.

• Exarch of the Ecumenical Patriarchate

Archbishop Demetrios (Trakatellis) of America was born in Thessaloniki, Greece.  In 1950 he graduated with distinction from the University of Athens School of Theology. He was ordained a deacon in 1960, and a priest in 1964. 

He was elected Bishop of Vresthena in 1967, auxiliary to the Archbishop of Athens, responsible for the theological education of the clergy. From 1965 to 1971, he studied New Testament and Christian Origins at Harvard University, and was awarded a Ph.D. "with distinction" in 1972. He earned a second doctorate in Theology from the University of Athens "with distinction" in 1977.  From 1983 to 1993, he was the Distinguished Professor of Biblical Studies and Christian Origins at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts. He also taught at Harvard Divinity School as Visiting Professor of New Testament.  He was inducted in 2003 into the Academy of Athens as a member who resides abroad. In August 1991 he was elevated to be the Titular Metropolitan of Vresthena.

On August 19, 1999, he was elected Archbishop of America by the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. He was enthroned on September 18, 1999 in New York City. In over a decade of leading the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, with more than one and a half million members in the United States, he has touched and inspired the lives of  thousands of people with his incessant, methodical and loving archpastoral ministry.

As Exarch of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, he is the Chairman of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America. He has been the recipient of many governmental, ecclesiastical, interfaith, and academic honors, both in the USA, Greece and Europe. 

• Director, International Center for Law and Religious Studies
• J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University

A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where he was a note editor of the Harvard Law Review and managing editor of the Harvard International Law Journal, Durham has been heavily involved in comparative law scholarship, with a special emphasis on comparative constitutional law. He is the Susa Young Gates University Professor of Law and director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at  Bringham Young University's J. Reuben Clark Law School. He has been heavily involved in comparative law scholarship, with a special emphasis on comparative constitutional law. He is the president of the International Consortium for Law and Religious Studies based in Milan, Italy, and a co-editor-in-chief of the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion.

From 1989 to 1994, he served as the secretary of the American Society of Comparative Law, and he is also an associate member of the International Academy of Comparative Law in Paris. He served as a general repporteur for the topic "Religion and the Secular State" at an International Congress of Comparative Law held in 2010. He also served as chair both of the Comparative Law Section and the Law and Religion Section of the American Association of Law Schools in earlier years. He has taught at BYU since 1976, and was awarded the honorary designation of University Professor in 1999. In 2000, he was appointed to be director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at BYU.  Since 1994, he also has been a recurring visiting professor of law at Central European University in Budapest, where he teaches comparative constitutional law to students from throughout Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. He also has been a guest professor at Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, and at the University of Vienna. In 2009, he was awarded the International First Freedom Award by the First Freedom Center, Richmond, Virginia. Earlier this year, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Ovidius University, Constanta, Romania.

Durham has been involved in constitutional drafting projects in Nepal (2009 and 2011), Thailand (2007), and Iraq (2205-06). He has worked on constitutional and statutory drafting projects  throughout Eastern Europe and in most former Soviet bloc countries.  He has been particularly active in matters involving relations between religion and the state, though he also has extensive experience with  comparative criminal law and nonprofit law. He served from 1997 until this past February as a member of the  International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies based in Milan. He serves as a board member of the International Religious Liberty Association and of the International Advisory Board of the Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief. He has been active in work on laws on governing the civil society sector, having served as chairman of the Board of the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law in Washington, D.C.

Over the past few years, his involvement in these organizations has enabled him to play an active role in advising governments throughout much of the former socialist bloc on constitutional provisions and legislation dealing with criminal law and procedure, court structure, general constitutional issues, and the law of associations, including particularly religious associations. He has helped organize technical assistance to law reform projects and comparative Law conferences around the world, including Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Estonia, France, Georgia, Hungary, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan,  Kyrgyzstsan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Nepal, Peru, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Samoa, Serbia, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Ukraine, and Vietnam.  Prof. Durham has organized a series of conferences on comparative law issues at BYU and at other institutions, which have brought about 800 scholars and experts dealing with comparative constitutional law themes from more than 100 countries to the United States.

He is co-author with Brett Scharffs of Religion and the Law: National, International and Comparative Perspectives (Aspen 2010), and with William Bassett and Robert Smith of Religious Organizations of the Law, an annually updated treatise published by Thompson Reuters/West. He is the editor (with Noel Reynolds) of Religious Liberty in Western Thought, and (with Silvio Ferrari) of Law and Religion in Post-Communist Europe. He is also co-editor of Facilitating Freedom of Religion or Belief: A Deskbook, which was published in 2004 by Brill under the Martinus Nijhoff imprint, and also Religious Organization in the United States, published in 2006 by Carolina Academic Press. He has authored numerous law review articles dealing with religious liberty and other comparative law themes. Over the past several years, he has testified before the U.S. Congress in hearings on religious intolerance in Europe and on the Religious Liberty Protection Act.

Dr. Ealy, who received a Ph.D. degree from the University of Georgia in 1979, taught at various colleges in the southeastern United States for fourteen years before joining the staff of Liberty Fund in 1993. He is currently a senior fellow at Liberty Fund, an educational foundation based in Indianapolis, Indiana.

At the foundation, Dr. Ealy organizes small group conferences of a wide range of topics. He is a member of the Board of Visitors of Pepperdine University's School of Public Policy, and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of SOCIETY and the Editorial Board of Conversations on Philanthropy.

He has written on the fiction, criticism, and poetry of Robert Penn Warren, as well as on the history of American philanthropy and on Constitutional interpretation.  Among his recent articles are "Original Sin, Crises of Faith, and the Possibility of Redemption in All the King's Men" and "The Qur'an's Guidance to Readers."

Abbot of the Halki Holy Trinity Patriarchal and Stavropeghial Monastery

His Eminence Metropolitan of Bursa and Exarch of Bithynia, Elpidophoros (Lambriniadis) was born in 1967 in Bakirköy, Istanbul.  He studied at the Department of Pastoral Theology, Thelogical School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, from which he graduated in 1991.  In 1993, he finished his postgraduate studies at the Philosophical School of the University of Bonn, Germany submitting a dissertation entitled, "The Brothers Nicholas and John Mesarites."

He was ordained a Deacon in 1994 at the Patriarchal Cathedral and was appointed as the Codecographer of the Holy and Sacred Synod.  In 1995, he was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Holy and Sacred Synod. From 1996-1997 he studied at the Theological School of St. John the Damascene in Balamand, Lebanon, where he improved his knowledge of the Arabic language.  In 2001, he presented a doctoral dissertation at the Theological School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki under the title: "Severus of Antioch and the Council of Chalcedon" proclaiming him a Doctor of Theology.  In 2004, he was invited to Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Boston, where he taught as a visiting professor for one semester.

In March 2005, at the proposal of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, he was promoted by the Holy and Sacred Synod to the position of Chief Secretary and was ordained to the priesthood by the Ecumenical Patriarch in the Patriarchal Cathedral. In 2009, he submitted two dissertations to the Theological School of Thessaloniki and was unanimously elected Assistant Professor of Symbolics, Inter-Orthodox Relations and the Ecumenical Movement. The dissertations are entitled: "The Synaxis's of the Hierarchy of the Ecumenical Throne (1951-2004)" and "Luther's Ninety-five Thesis. Historical and Theological aspects. Text - Translation - Commentary."

In March 2011, he was elected Metropolitan of Bursa and in August of the same year was appointed Abbot of the Holy Patriarchal and Stavropegial Monastery of the Holy Trinity on the island of Chalki.  He has served as the Orthodox Secretary of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the Lutheran World Federation and as a member of the Patriarchal delegations to the General Assemblies of the Conference of European Churches and the World Council of Churches.

He was the Secretary of the Pan-Orthodox Synods in Sofia (1998), Istanbul (2005), Geneva (2006), and Istanbul (2008). He has been a member of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches since 1996.

His Eminence Metropolitan Emmanuel of France (Adamakis) was born December 19, 1958 in Crete. His advanced studies in Philosophy and Theology were at the Faculty of Humanities of the Catholic Institute of Paris and St. Sergius Orthodox Institute. He continued his studies in Religious History at the Sorbonne (Paris IV) and the Higher Institute of Ecumenical Studies at the Institute Catholique de Paris. He was ordained a deacon and priest in 1985. He later matriculated into Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1987 he was appointed as the Chancellor of the Metropolis of Belgium, while serving as Dean of the parish of the Taxiarchae in Brussels and teaching Orthodox Religion at the European Schools.

His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew appointed him to head the Liaison Office of the Orthodox Church to the European Union at its inception in 1995. In 1996 he was elected Bishop of Reggio, and was appointed auxiliary Bishop of the Metropolitan of Belgium. In early 2003 he was unanimously elected by the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to be Metropolitan of France. Since 2001 the Ecumenical Patriarchate has entrusted him with responsibilities for the International Interreligious Dialogue with the Monotheistic Religions. He also represents the Ecumenical Patriarchate in theological dialogues with the Vatican, the ancient Oriental Churches, and among the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches. He continues to direct the representation of the Orthodox Church to the EU. He is President of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) and of the Assembly of Orthodox Bishops of France, co-president of the Council of Christian Churches of France, as well as co-president of the World Conference of Religions for Peace (WCRP). He speaks fluent Greek, French and English. Metropolitan Emmanuel has been named "Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur" in France, among other Church and State distinctions.

Dr. Aykan Erdemir, is a member of the Turkish Parliament representing Bursa since June 2011. He is a member of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee and the EU Harmonization Committee. He has also served on the ad-hoc parliamentary committee on IT sector and the Internet. Dr. Erdemir sits on the executive boards of the Turkish-Swedish and Turkish-Kosovar Inter-parliamentary Friendship Groups. He is a member of the Scientific Board of the Social Democracy Association. His policy portfolio covers fundamental rights and freedoms, religious minorities, discrimination, hate crimes, and Turkish-EU and Turkish-U.S. relations.

Dr. Erdemir holds a master's in Middle Eastern Studies and a doctorate in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University. He was a doctoral fellow at Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Dr. Erdemir worked as an assistant professor of sociology at Middle East Technical University (METU) between 2004 and 2011. He served as the Deputy Dean of the METU Graduate School of Social Sciences (2005-2010) and as the graduate director of the METU-Humboldt German-Turkish Masters in Social Sciences (2007-2011).

He is the recipient of following fellowships: Germany Meets Turkey (Institute for Cultural Diplomacy), Munich Security Conference - Young Leaders (Körber Stiftung), International Leaders Forum (National Democratic Institute), Aspen Scholar & Aspen Leadership Seminar (The Aspen Institute), Future International Leaders Programme (UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office).

He also has been involved in research projects funded by the Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, U.S. National Science Foundation, European Union Framework Programs (6th and 7th), European Commission's European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights, European Center for Minority Issues (ECMI), The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK).

He has edited seven books and published numerous academic articles including "The Byzantine Mosque at Trilye: A Processual Analysis of Dominance, Sharing, Transformation and Tolerance" (History and Anthropology, 2011), "The Iconostasis of the Republican Mosque: Transformed Religious Sites as Artifacts of Intersecting Religioscapes" (International Journal of Middle East Studies, forthcoming), "Differential, Disguised and Deterritorialized:  The State Funding of Religion in Turkey" (State Financing of Religion, Ashgate, forthcoming).

Dr. Erdemir is a regular op-ed contributor to Ekometre, a monthly business and economics journal.

In addition to being director of Human Rights Without Frontiers International, Mr. Fautré is a member of the International Consortium on Law and Religious Studies.  He is the former charge de mission at the Cabinet of the Belgian Parliament. For  20 years, he has defended the rights of Christian asylum-seekers from Turkey in Belgium and published numerous articles about Turkey's minorities. He is involved in the human rights dialogues between the European Union and a number of countries, including Turkey. 

He has developed religious freedom advocacy in European institutions, as the OSCE and at the United Nations. He is a lecturer in the field of religious freedom, discrimination and intolerance. He has written many articles in university journals about relations between state and religions. Some of his most recent publications:

"Religious Education in Belgium" in the Handbook of Religious Education, edited by Derek Davis and Elena Miroshnikova, the Routledge International Handbook, (2012);  "The Sect Issue in France and in Belgium," in Law and Religion: National, International and Comparative Perspectives, editors W. Cole Durham and Brett G. Scharffs (Wolters Kluwer: Aspen Publications, 2010); "On Religious Liberty in a Democratic Society – Aspect of Law, Religion and Philosophy in Constitutional Theory and Reality, published by Gerhard Besier and Hubert Seiwert, Technical University, Dresden, Germany (2009); and "Legal Regulations of Religious Communities in EU Member States: A Human Rights Perspective (pages 67-74) in Mitna Sprava Naukovo-Analytishnii Journal, Academy of Law, Odessa, Ukraine (2009).
 

Andrew Finkel has been a journalist based in Turkey since 1989, corresponding for a variety of print and broadcast media including The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Economist, TIME, and CNN.  More unusually, he has worked in the Turkish language press both in the news room and as a featured columnist (Sabah, Milliyet, and Taraf) and appears frequently on Turkish television. He is a regular contributor to the Latitude section of the International New York Times and corresponds for The Art Newspaper from Istanbul.

His free-lance articles and editorials have appeared in a large number of publications including The Washington Post, The Guardian, the Observer, Foreign Affairs, The Financial Times, and Le Monde Diplomatique. He is a founder member of Platform24, an initiative to support media independence in Turkey. His opinions have been sought for a variety of broadcast current affairs programmes from the BBC to CBS. He is also the contributing editor and restaurant critic of Cornucopia Magazine.

His latest book Turkey: What Everyone Needs to Know is published by Oxford University Press.

Özge Genç received her bachelor's degree in International Relations from Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, Turkey. She received her master's degree in International Politics and Middle East Studies from School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS),  University of London. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Istanbul Bilgi University and her research is on secularism in Turkey. 

She worked as a visiting scholar at Columbia University's Middle East Institute (MEI) between August 2009 and 2010.

In 2006, Genç joined the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV), a think tank and research center based in Istanbul. She is currently the program director of TESEV's Democratization Program, focussing mainly on constitutional reform and religion-state-society relations.

Born in Bursa in 1977, she graduated from Saint Joseph High School and received her bachelor's degree at the Istanbul University Faculty of Law. She received her master's degree from Bosporus University Ataturk Institute for Modern Turkey History with a thesis on juvenile delinquency and penitentiaries in the early Republican era.  Currently, she is working on her doctoral thesis on forced migration and its effects  on Istanbul's urban transformation to be presented to the Etudes en Sciences Sociales.  She is also a member of the Istanbul Bar Association since 2009 and gives lectures in Istanbul Technical University, Yildiz Technical University, Sabanci University, Bosporus University.

She is the founder and works as program director of Hafiza Merkezi (Center for Truth, Justice and Memory). She is also the adviser of  the Peace and Democracy Party in the parliamentary commission for the new constitution.

Dr. Kaya is a professor at Istanbul's Bilgi University where he is director of the European Institute at the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence, Department of International Relations. He holds the Jean Monnet Chair of European Politics of Interculturalism.

He is the author of several books. His most recent books are Islam, Migration and Integration: The Age of Securitization, published in 2012, and Europeanization and Tolerance: The Myth of Toleration, published this year.
 

Born in Ankara in 1958, Dr. Köker graduated from Ankara University Law School in 1980. He received a master's degree in political science from Ankara University in 1983. After having completed his doctoral dissertation in 1987, he became an assistant professor of politics in Gazi University where, in 1990, he became an associate professor in political theory. In 1996, he was promoted to full professorship in public law at Gazi University Law School. He spent the 1984-85 academic year in Mansfield College in Oxford, England, and 1994-95 at the Center of International Studies at Princeton University as British Council and Fulbright fellows respectively. In addition to Gazi and Ankara universities, he has taught also in METU, Bilkent and Atilum universities in Ankara, Abant Izzet Baysal University in  Bolu, and the Near East University in Cyprus. He is currently a member of the Faculty of Law in Atilum University.

He has published many books, all in Turkish, including Modernization, Kemalism and Democracy (2009), Two Different Conceptions of Politics (2008), and Democracy, Critique and Turkey (2008).  He has written articles in English for academic journals including  Political Theory, The Annals of the AAPSS  and Constellations. He has been a contributor to Contested Sovereignties, Government and Opposition Middle Eastern and European Perspectives   (edited by Elisabeth Ozdalga and Sune Persson, I.B. Tauris ,London 2010); Islam and Political-Cultural Europe (edited by Cole W. Durham and David Kirkham, Ashgate, London, 2012). 

Professor Köker joined the committee of scholars in 2007 to prepare a draft constitution for Turkey and has been an active participant in many international symposia, including "Emerging Legal Issues Involving Islam in Europe, Part II" at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, 2008; "Fifteenth Annual International Law and Religion Symposium at Brigham Young University ,Provo, Utah, 2008, and "Contested Sovereignties, Constitutional Arrangements and Their Relevance for Democracy: European and Middle Eastern Perspectives' at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, 2009.

Rober Koptaş was born in Istanbul and graduated from Marmara University after completing his primary and secondary education at Armenian schools.  He has a master's degree from Bosporus University Department of Modern Turkish History.

He worked as editor at Aras Publishing House, which is known for its publications on Armenian literature, culture, and history.  He has written articles for various journals and dailies.

Since 2006, he has been working as a journalist and columnist for Agos, a bilingual weekly newspaper founded by Hrant Dink, who was editor-in-chief up to his assassination in 2007.  Mr. Koptaş became editor-in-chief of Agos in 2010.

Legal advisor of Ecumenical Patriarchate

Mr. Ktistakis is assistant professor of Human Rights Law in Bogazici University of Istanbul, Turkey, and Democritus University of Thrace, Greece. He is the legal adviser to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. He is a lawyer-senior [partner in Ktistakis & Associates Law Firm. He previously served as legal consultant to the Greek National Commission for Human Rights and the Marangopoulos Foundation for Human Rights.

He is a member of the European Network of Legal Experts in the non-discrimination field. Former memberships included the Executive Board of the EUMC, the Greek Equal Treatment Commission, the National Commission for Human Rights, and the secretary general of the Greek League for Human Rights (NGO). He has more than 35 publications on issues related to immigration law, religious freedom, Islamic law, protection of human rights, and the jurisprudence of the ECHR. He has successfully defended 53 cases before the European Court of Human Rights and one collective complaint before the European Committee of Social Rights.

He earned his LL.B. from Democritus University of Thrace. He holds a D.E.A.  on "The Political and Cultural Construction of Europe" from the Institute of Political Sciences (Strasbourg) and master of "Legal Theory" from the European Academy of Legal Theory (Brussels). He gained his doctorate on "Religious Liberty Under the European Convention of Human Rights" from the University of Athens. His postdoctoral research focused on "The NGOs Before the International Courts" (Democritus University of Thrace).

He is fluent in Greek (mother tongue), English and French.

• German Institute for International and Security Affairs

Former Director of the Democratization Program, Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation

Dilek Kurban received her bachelor's degree in Political Science and International Relations from Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, and Master in International Affairs (MIA) from the  School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. She received her J.D. degree from Columbia Law School, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar.

Between 1999 and 2001, she worked as an associate political affairs officer at the Security Council Division of the United Nations Department of Political Affairs in New York. Having received the 2004 Columbia Rights Fellowship, she was a visiting researcher at the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) in Istanbul and the European Center for Minority Issues in Germany.  Kurban joined TESEV as a program officer in 2005 and became the Director of the Democratization Program in 2011.  Having relocated to Berlin in 2013, she continues her affiliation with TESEV as an adviser.

Previously, Kurban was a columnist for Turkish dailies Milliyet and Radikal, an editor for the Armenian-Turkish weekly Agos, and regularly comments on Turkey's democratization process in domestic and international media. In 2007 and 2008, she taught at the Political Science and International Affairs Department of Boğaziçi University. 

She is a founding member of Diyarbakir Institute of Political and Social Studies and the Turkey expert of the European Commission's Network of Independent Experts in the non-discrimination field.  Kurban has published widely on the Kurdish question, internal displacement field, human rights, minority rights, media freedom and anti-discrimination in Turkey, as well as European human rights law. Currently, she is the Mercator-IPC Fellow at Stiftung Wissenschaft and Politik (SWP) in Berlin.

Dr. Limberakis, an Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate since 1987 and a member of the Archon National Council since 1988, is a practicing radiologist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  A former page in the United States Senate while in high school, he earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in political science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1975. AS 1978 graduate of the Duke University School of Medicine, he is president and owner of Bustleton Radiology Associates, Ltd. He is married to Dr. Maria A. (Borden) Limberakis, a family practitioner, and together they have three adult children, John, Anthony and Elizabeth, and two grandchildren, Dakota and Anthony.

He is a member of the Archdiocesan Council of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and the Board of Trustees of Hellenic College/Holy Cross School of Theology.  In May 2002, he received an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Humanities from Hellenic College, Brookline, Massachusetts. In May 2000, he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

In June 2009, His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem named him the Commander Cross-bearer (Stavrophoros) of the Order of the All-Holy Sepulcher Cross-bearers. In November 2009, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Demetrios of America presented him with the Athenagoras Human Rights Award, the highest distinction of the Greek Orthodox Church of America.

He has served on the Duke University Medical Center Board of Visitors and was past president of the Duke Medical Alumni Association. He was awarded the Charles A. Dukes Award, Duke's highest recognition for volunteer service to the university.  In November 1999, Dr. Limberakis was the recipient of the Duke Medical Center Distinguished Service Award.

• Coordinator of Washington Religious Freedom Initiatives
• President, Manatos & Manatos

Mr. Manatos served as a U.S. Senate committee staff director and an assistant secretary in the President Jimmy Carter Administration.  He founded the Washington, D.C., public affairs company of Manatos & Manatos in 1983, of which he continues to be president. The Washington Post described the firm as "one of Washington's most powerful lobbying firms."

Working closely with the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, on whose national council he serves and as a regional commander of the Order of St. Andrew, his firm created and maintains an annual meeting with each president of the United States for 27 years with the Greek-American community. Manatos managed the legislation that secured the Congressional Gold Medal for Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, secured use of the U.S. Capitol Rotunda for honoring Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios, the second time in history the Rotunda was used to honor a living person. He also orchestrated efforts producing letters to the president advocating religious freedom for the Ecumenical Patriarchate, signed by 90 of the 100 senators and more than 291 members of Congress.

Manatos has testified before the U.S. Congress and has been a guest columnist for The Washington Post, The New York Times, and other national publications. Manatos co-hosts an annual Washington dinner for the THEA Foundation with former President Bill Clinton.

Rinaldo Marmara is a historian specialized in the history of Latin Catholic community in Turkey. He has several books and articles about the history of the Latin community covering the Byzantine, Ottoman, and Turkish Republican period.

Marmara is the spokesperson of the Episcopal Conference of Turkey and he was granted Chevalier de l'Ordre de Saint-Grégoire le Grand by the Vatican.

Mr. Messo was born and raised in the Netherlands, but lives currently in Sweden. His roots lie in the ancient Syriac Orthodox region in Southeast Turkey called Tur-Abdin, which is Aramaic for "the Mountain of Servants (of God)" and known as the  Mount Athos of the East.

He received his propaedeutics in theology at the Evangelical Higher Education in Veenendaal (1999) and his bachelor's in Hebrew and Aramaic Languages and Culture at Leiden University (2007). In the last two decades, he has been actively engaged with the Aramean (Syriac) people, working for different Aramaic organizations, such as director (2003-2008) and researcher of the Dutch-based Study Center Aramea. He currently presides over the World Council of Arameans (Syriacs). This NGO was founded in 1983 and enjoys since 1999 a special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

Mr. Messo has published widely about and given many speeches and lectures in a number of European countries, the United States, India and the Middle East  about past, present and future questions dealing with the Aramean (Syriac) people, in particular about their  history and identity. His recent two books and titled - The Aramean (Syriac) People: Native to Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and The Aramean Community in Overijssel, 1965-2013: History, Identity, Integration (in Dutch).

• Director of Cornell's Institute for African Development
• Human Rights Advocate
• Humanitarian

Muna Ndulo graduated L.L.B.  (Zambia), L.L.M. (Harvard) and Ph.D. (Oxford). He is a professor law at the Cornell Law School and director of Cornell University's Institute for African Development. He is also honorary professor of law, Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town, and extra ordinary professor of law, Free State University. He was formerly professor of law and dean of the School of Law, University of Zambia.

He has lectured in several universities, including: Bayreauth and Graz. He served as legal officer in the international Trade Law Branch of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law from 1986 to 1995, and as political and legal adviser with the United Nations Mission Observer Mission in South Africa, and to the special representative of the United Nations Secretary General to South Africa, 1992-1994. He also served as legal adviser to the United Nations Assistance Mission to East Timor in 1999, legal expert to the United Nations Mission to Kosovo in 2000, and legal expert to the United Nations Mission to Afghanistan in 2003.

He has acted as consultant to the African Development Bank (ADB) and helped establish ADB's African Legal Support Facility, the World Bank, Economic Commission for Africa, United Nations Development Program, National Democratic Institute, United States Institute for Peace and International Law Organization.  He has acted as consultant to the Kenya 2010 Constitutional Process, Zimbabwe Constitutional Process (1999), and Somalia (2012). He is founder of the Southern African Institute for Public Policy and Research and a member of its Board of Directors. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the African Association of International Law, American Society of International Law, the Advisory Committee, Human Rights Watch (Africa), and chairman of Gender Links, a South African NGO.

He has published 17 books and more than 90 articles in academic journals. He is a frequent commentator in newspaper articles and has regularly been interviewed on African affairs by the BBC and Voice of America. He was awarded the Distinguished Africanist Scholar Award (2012) by the New York African Studies Association. He received the Cornell University Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring of Graduate and Professional Students Award in 2012.

Head of the International Law Department at the Faculty of Law, Galatasary University

Emre Öktem is an associate professor of international law and the head of the International Law Department at the Faculty of Law of Galatasaray University, Istanbul.

He is the author of several books including "Freedom of Religion in International Law," "Terrorism, Humanitarian Law and Human Rights," and "Customary International Law."  He also has written articles on human rights, humanitarian law, minority rights, terrorism, international recognition, continuity and succession, and other fields of international law, as well as essays on history and interfaith dialogue. He has published widely regarding the application of international law in Turkey.

He has served as an expert at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. He has advised Turkish courts, in the capacity of an expert witness, with respect to international law matters. He has also served as an expert witness in international investment arbitrations.

Ilber Ortayli is a leading Turkish historian, professor of history at the University of Galatasaray in Istanbul and at Bilkent University in Ankara. Since 2005 he has been the head of the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul.

Born in  1947, he  attended elementary school and Saint Georg High School in Istanbul and then Ankara Atatürk High School. He graduated from Ankara University and completed his postgraduate studies at the Chicago University and at the University of Vienna. He obtained his doctorate at Ankara University in the Faculty of Political Sciences.  His doctoral thesis was  "Local Administration in the Tanzimai Period" (1978).  After his doctorate, he attended to the faculty at the School of Political Sciences of Ankara University.

In 1979, he was appointed an associate professor. In 1981, his book on the German influence on the late Ottoman Empire was published. In 1982, he resigned from his position, protesting the academic policy of the government after the military coup of September 12, 1980. After teaching at several universities in Turkey, Europe, and Russia he returned in 1989  to the Ankara University and became professor of history and the head of the section of administrative history.

He has published articles on Ottoman and Russian history, with particular emphasis on cities and the history of public administration, diplomatic, cultural and intellectual history. In 2001, he received the Aydın Doğan Foundation Award. He is a member of the Foundation for International Studies, the European-Iran Examining Foundation, and the Austrian-Turkish Academy of Sciences. A biographical book on Mr. Ortayli was published by Nilgün Uysal, Zaman Kabolmaz: Ilber Ortayli Kitabi (Istanbul) in 2006.

Ihsan Ozbek was born in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1963 to a nominal Muslim family. In 1982 he became a Christian and in 1992 he started to serve as an elder in the evangelical church in Ankara and in 1996 became the pastor. He served as the chairman for the Turkish Evangelical Alliance for eight years. He founded the Filipus Ministry School in 2003 to train believers to equip them in their ministries in and outside Turkey. Now there are four Filipus Ministry Schools in Turkey, Brazil, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan.

He is a graduate from Whitefield Theological Seminary. In 2005, he was appointed as the dean of Martin Bucer Seminar's Faculty in Turkey. He was ordained by the Foursquare Church and he is chairing Foursquare's Central Asia, Middle East and North Africa Regional Council. He is an Executive Committee member of the Foursquare Global Church.

Ozbek wrote four books including two commentaries on Galatians and Hebrews. He also has written a children's storybook and has a music CD. Ishan lives with his wife and two daughters in Ankara.

• Turkish Representative to the Venice Commission, Council of Europe

Dr. Özbudun is currently a professor of constitutional law and political science at Istanbul Şehir University.

Previously, he taught at many universities, including Columbia and Princeton.

He is also a member of the Venice Commission on the Council of Europe.

His most recent English language book is Party Politics and Social Cleavages in Turkey (Lynne Rienner 2013).

Mehmet Paçacı, Ph.D., is director general of International Affairs for the Presidency of Religious Affairs, Republic of Turkey.  Previously he served as a consular for Religious and Social Affairs for the Turkish embassy in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Paçacı, an expert on Qur'anic exegesis, has served as visiting professor at Georgetown University and as a scholar in residence at Wesley Theological Seminary. He also has taught at Ankara University in Turkey, the International Islamic University of Malaysia, Pontifical Gregorian University, Bamberg University, and King Saud University in Saudi Arabia.

• Former Vice Chair, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

Dr. Prodromou is a retired, senior U.S. diplomat, having served (2004-2012) as vice chair of the U.S. Commission on  International Religious Freedom.  Since 2011, she is a member of the U.S. Secretary of State's Religion and Foreign Policy Working Group: Strategic Dialogue with Civil Society.  She is an Affiliate Scholar at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, where she co-chairs the Southeastern Europe Study Group and the Study Group on Muslims and Democratic Politics. Beginning in 2014, she will be Visiting Associate Professor of Conflict Resolution at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Prodromou is a recognized authority on issues of religion and geopolitics, and religious freedom, human rights, and democracy, with particular expertise on Orthodox Christianity and Islam in Europe and the Middle East.

Prodromou has been an invited consultant to the U.S. diplomacy and defense communities, as well as international organizations, such as  NATO, United Nations, and the European Union.  In addition to publishing widely in journals such as Orbis, Survival, Journal of Democracy, Social Compass, Journal of Faith and International Affairs, she is a contributor to numerous collected volumes and is co-editor and contributor to Thinking Through Faith: New Perspectives from Orthodox Christian Scholars. She is a frequent contributor and commentator in media outlets such as The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, and The Hill's Congress Blog, as well as on television and radio outlets such as VOA and NPR. She has been quoted as an expert in leading international print media.

She holds a doctorate and master's in political science from MIT, and M.A.L.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and a bachelor's in international relations from Tufts University.  She is married to Dr. Alexandros K. Kyrou, and they live with their daughter in Massachusetts.

• Attorney

Mr. Rockas is a member of the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle, Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. He was the conference planning chairman for the religious freedom conference the Order sponsored in Brussels in 2010. He also is a member of the Order's Legal Committee and the chairman of the Litigation Sub-Committee of the Legal Committee.  In those capacities, he has helped monitor legal issues facing the Greek Orthodox Church minority as well as other religious minorities in Turkey.

He received his B.A. degree from Hamilton College and his J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from Cornell University.  He has been a lawyer for 30 years specializing in civil litigation, with an emphasis on defending non-medical professionals such as lawyers and accountants in malpractice cases and defending insurers in insurance coverage disputes.  He has tried a number of cases and argued a number of appeals in state and federal courts.

Since December 2000, he has been the managing partner of the Boston office of Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker LLP, a law firm with 25 offices in the United States and an office in London.  Throughout his career, Mr. Rockas has been active in the American Bar Association (ABA), including serving as the chairman of the ABA's Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee.

Dr. Schneider has been the chairman of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) since 2010.

After studying theology in Wuppertal, Gottingen, and Munster, Schneider served as a parish pastor, diaconal pastor, church district superintendent, and as head of personnel and Vice Praeses of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland. He was subsequently elected by the Rhineland Church Synod to be Praeses in 2003, a position which he held through his retirement in March of this year.

He was awarded honorary doctorates by the Church College Wuppertal/Bethel in 2011, and by the Karoli Gaspar of the Reformed Church in Hungary this past June. He also has received the Buber Rosenzweig Medal (2012) and the Leo Baeck Prize (2013).

Dr. Schneider was born on September 3, 1947.

• Chief Counsel to the European Center for Law and Justice, Strasbourg, France

Dr. Sekulow is chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a law firm and educational organization that focuses on constitutional law.  He is also chief counsel of the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ).  A nationally recognized and respected defender of constitutional freedoms, Sekulow has assembled one of the most prestigious law firms in the nation.  Founded in 1990, the ACLJ focuses on constitutional law.

In 2005, Time magazine called the ACLJ "a powerful counterweight" to the ACLU.  Business Week said the ACLJ is "the leading advocacy group for religious freedom." An accomplished and respected judicial advocate, Sekulow has presented numerous oral arguments before the Supreme Court of the United States in defense of constitutional freedoms.

He received his Ph.D. from Regent University, with a dissertation on American Legal History.  He is an honors graduate of Mercer Law School, where he served on the Mercer Law Review, and an honors graduate of Mercer University.  He was appointed a Visiting Fellow of Oxford University at Harris Manchester College where he lectured on Middle East Affairs and International Law.  He also serves as a member of the Summer Research Institute at Oxford from 2013 to 2016.  He has completed a program of study at Vanderbilt University's Owen School of Management in Executive Leadership and Strategic Innovation.

He currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for The  Supreme Court Historical Society in Washington, D.C.  He also serves as a Board of Trustees member for Regent University.

Mr. Sekulow oversees much of the center's international work, engaging with government officials and international leaders on human rights issues around the world. With an extensive background as a conservative grassroots political organizer on both national and local issues, Mr. Sekulow is a sought-after expert on American politics. He served as the National Youth Director for the Bush-Cheney 2004 presidential campaign.

He is the host of  "Jay Sekulow Live!," a syndicated radio program providing cutting analysis of today's political and legal landscape with elected officials and conservative leaders, as well as the host of "Sekulow," the ACLJ's weekly television broadcast. He regularly appears as a gues commentator on Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, and other national media outlets. He is a regular contributor to The Washington Post's "On Faith" section and maintains his own Washington Post blog entitled "Religious Right Now," where he covers social conservatives' involvement in shaping America's legal, political, cultural landscape. He also publishes articles in The Washington Times, The Daily Caller, Human Events, and  the National Review Online.

He is a graduate of Regent University School of Law in Virginia Beach, Va., where he served as co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Regent Journal of Law and Public Policy. He is also a graduate of George Washington University and his Master of Laws degree in International Human Rights from the Georgetown Law Center.

Murat Somer is senior visiting scholar at the Stockholm University Institute for Turkish Studies and associate professor of international relations (comparative politics and Turkish politics) at Koç in Istanbul.

Dr. Somer's research on democratization, political moderation, religious and secular politics, ethnic conflicts, political Islam, and the Kurdish question have been published in book volumes and academic journals such as Comparative Political Studies, Democratization, and The Middle East Journal. His opinion pieces have appeared in outlets such as Foreign Policy and The National. He is a frequent contributor to Turkish and International broadcast media on Turkish and regional politics and international relations.

Somer is a former  Mellon post-doctoral fellow in modern ethnic conflicts at the University of Washington in Seattle and a former Democracy and Development fellow at Princeton University in New Jersey. He holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Istanbul's Boğaziçi University and a doctorate in political economy and public policy from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

• Chairman, Legal Committee, Order St. Andrew

A native of Chios, Greece, Christopher Stratakis is a graduate of Drexel University (B.S., 1951) and the New York University School of Law (J.D., 1955). He is a senior partner of Poles, Tublin, Stratakis & Gonzalez, LLP, a law firm he joined in 1960. He has been practicing admiralty and corporate law ever since. Prior to joining his law firm, he was general counsel to National Shipping & Trading Corp., a New York shipping company.

He has acted as the legal adviser (pro bono) to Panchiaki "Korais" Society, the Order of St. Andrew, Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the office of the Greek Consular Harbor Master of  New York (emeritus) and the New York Shipping Corporation Committee.  His extensive community involvement includes longtime service to the Greek Orthodox Church in the United States. He is a member of Leadership 100 and an Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.  In addition to being its legal counselor, he is also a member of the National Council and Chairman of the Legal Committee of the Order of St. Andrew.

He is the recipient of several awards, including St. Paul's Award (1976) and Layman's Award (1991), Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North America and South America; Medal of Merit for Greek Diaspora, Government of Greece (1974); member of the Holy Sepulchre, Patriarchate of Jerusalem (1993); the Ellis Island Medal of Honor (2001), and several awards from Drexel University.

He has been for several years as the advisory board chairman of the Center for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies in Queens College and is a member of the Board of Governors (emeritus) of Drexel University. His concern about ethics in business led him and his wife, Mary, in 2003  to endow the Christopher and Mary Stratakis Chair in Corporate Governance and Accountability at Drexel University's LeBow College of Business. They have three children and three grandchildren.

Dr. Tuğba Tanyeri-Erdemir, in addition to being deputy director of the Center for Science and Society, also is a lecturer in the graduate program in Architectural History at Middle East Technical University, Ankara.  She received her doctorate in archaeology from Boston University and her bachelor and master degrees  in archaeology and art history from Bilkent University, Ankara. She worked as a teaching fellow at Harvard University, Boston University, and Koç University, Istanbul. She is a member of the American Research Institute in Turkey. Her research interests include religious freedoms, cultural heritage management of multi-layered sacred sites and re-utilization and museumification of religious buildings.

Dr. Tanyeri-Erdemir has directed and participated in numerous international interdisciplinary research projects.  She was the director of the Turkish teams of "Antagonistic Tolerance: Competitive Sharing of Sacred Sites" (funded by U.S. National Science Foundation and Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research) and "RELIGARE:  Religious Diversity and Secular Models in Europe, Innovative Approaches to Law and Policy" (funded by European Commission Seventh Framework Programme ). 

Her recent publications include "The Byzantine Mosque at Trilye:  A Processual Analysis of Dominance, Sharing, Transformation and Tolerance" (History and Anthropology 2011); "Religion and Discrimination in the Workplace in Turkey:  Old and New Issues and Contemporary Challenges" (International Journal for Discrimination and the Law, 2013); "Differential, Disguised and Deterritorialized:  The State Funding of Religion in Turkey" (State Financing of Religion, Ashgate, forthcoming) "Historical Trajectories, Institutional Particularities:  The Funding Regime for Religious Heritage in Turkey"  (Funding Religious Heritage, Ashgate, forthcoming); "The Iconostasis of the Republican Mosque: Transformed Religious Sites as Artifacts of Intersecting Religioscapes" (International Journal of Middle East Studies, forthcoming). 

Dr. Tanyeri-Erdemir occasionally contributes op-eds to the Hürriyet Daily News on religious freedoms, discrimination, and cultural heritage issues. 

• Member of the Turkish Parliament
• Member of the Constitution Committee

Dr. Türmen, a native of Istanbul, Turkey, graduated from the English High School for Boys in 1964 and the Istanbul University Law Faculty in 1964. He completed his lawyer's training in the Istanbul Bar Association. He received a master's degree in law from the McGill University, Montreal, and a doctoral degree in international relations from the Political Science Faculty of Ankara.

In 1966, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and served at the Turkish delegation to the United National and the Turkish embassy in Islamabad. In 1978, he became Turkish representative to the Internal Civil Aviation Organization. In 1985, he was appointed Turkish ambassador to Singapore. From 1989 to 1994, he served in Ankara as the director general in charge of the Council of Europe, Human Rights, the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the United Nations. In 1994, he became ambassador of Turkey to Switzerland and in 1996, became ambassador of Turkey to the Council of Europe.

In 1998, Dr. Türmen was elected as the Turkish judge to the European Court of Human Rights. He was re-elected in 2001 and remained at the Court until 2008.

He is the recipient of the Lawyer of the Year Award given by the Turkish Bar Association in 2009, the Distinguished Service Award by the Middle East Technical University in 2009, and the Freedom of the Press Award by the Turkish Journalists Association, also in 2009. He also received the Distinguished Service Award from the Cagdas Yasami Destekleme Dernegi, a non-government organization active in the field of education of girls of poor families in Turkey.

At present, he currently is a member of the Turkish Parliament for the CHP Party and a member of the Constitution Commission.

• Representative of Non Muslim Foundations

Pandeli Laki Vingas is an entrepreneur managing his own export-import business since 1983. As a member of the Greek minority of Istanbul, he has been very active in the social affairs of his community, including active participation in Greek minority cultural organizations. He has been a member of administrative boards of community foundations and serving for ten years as president of the Zographeion High School Alumni Association. During his presidency of the association he was the initiator and organizer of several cultural events such as conferences, concerts, and  panel discussions dealing with issues concerning the status of minorities in Turkey and promoting the heritage of the Greek minority.

He was appointed a member of the Advisory Committee of the 2010 Istanbul Cultural Capital of Europe Agency. In 2008, he was the first member to be selected to the General Assembly of the General Directorate of Foundations (GDF) in Ankara, representing all 166 non-Muslim Minority Foundations of Turkey. During his term he achieved putting in the agenda of the GDF  many longstanding issues that concern minority foundations. In addition, he has been  working closely with all minority groups with the aim to promote their rightful demands and to mobilize its members to get involved with civil society, enhancing their communication with state actors. He also established collaborative networks among all minority groups in Turkey by promoting their common goals and demands. In December of 2011, he was re-elected to the same post.

In 2010, he was among the initiators and founders of the Association for the Support of the Greek Community's Foundations (Rumvader), which coordinates the activities of all 69 foundations of the Greek minority in Turkey. He served as president of Rumvader from January of 2011 until December of 2012. He has participated in many conferences with topics ranging from religious freedom and Turkey's bridge to the European Union, the role of minority foundations in Turkey,  and the experience of a minority person living in Turkey.

Born in 1961, he received his degree from the Technical University of Yildiz in Istanbul with a degree as a naval mechanical engineer. He lives in Istanbul with his wife and three children.

• Director, Freedom of Belief Initiative Project in Turkey
• Norwegian Helsinki Commission
• Doctoral Candidate, Aabo Akademi
• Institute of Human Rights

In addition to being head of the Freedom of Belief Initiative Monitoring Project, Ms. Yildirim is a researcher at Abo Akademi University Institute for Human Rights.

Her recent research and publications indicate her expertise in this field:  The Right to Establish Places of Worship in Turkey for Religion and Human Rights (Vol. 8, 2013); The Return of Property to Community  Foundations in Turkey – The Restitution Decree, European Yearbook of Minority Issues ( Vol. 9, 2013); a chapter entitled "Freedom of Religion or Belief in the Turkish Legal System" in the Handbook of Religious Freedom (2012); a book chapter,  "Religion in the Public and Private Workplace: The Approach of the Turkey Judiciary" in A Test of Faith? Religious Diversity and Accommodation in the European Workplace (2012);Co-author on the report, "A Threat or Under Threat: Legal and Social Problems of Protestants in Turkey (2010); "Conscientious Objection to Military Service in International Law and the Case of Turkey" for Religion and Human Rights (2010).  In addition, she has been a contributor to Forum 18, TESEV (Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation) and has contributed articles to many Turkish newspapers.

She also has served as a consultant on several projects including work on freedom of religion or belief  in Turkey for human rights organizations and religious communities.  This past June, she did a background paper evaluating the optional religion lessons in light of Turkey's human rights obligations for ERG (Educational Reform Initiative). And last year, also for ERG, she did another background paper on the changes in curricula of the Religious Culture and Ethics Books in light of human rights and human rights education.

Ms. Yildirim is currently a doctoral candidate and researcher at Abo Akademi University Institute for Human Rights.  Her research topic is "The Collective Dimension of Freedom of Religion or Belief in International Human Rights Law and Application of Findings to Turkey." She received  her master's degree in Human Rights and Civil Liberties from Leicester University in the United Kingdom. Her dissertation was on "International Protection of Internally Displaced Persons." She received her bachelor's degree in International Relations from Marmara University in Istanbul.

John Zavitsanos has been an attorney since receiving his J.D. degree from the University of Michigan in 1987. His undergraduate degree was from the Loyola University of Chicago where he graduated magna cum laude in 1984. He has been recognized with numerous honors including the Best Lawyers in America award, which has been presented to him for nine consecutive years.

In 2007, Mr. Zavitsanos was selected to serve on a five-member committee by the Ecumenical Patriarch to investigate the possibility of initiating human rights litigation against the government of Turkey before the European Courts of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.  As a member of the committee, Mr. Zavitsanos is working with numerous internationally known human rights lawyers, including lawyers from the American Center for Law and Justice, the European Center for Law and Justice, and some prominent human rights lawyers from Turkey. He also is a member of the Archdiocesan Council of the Greek Orthodox Church of America, as well  as a member of the executive committee of the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle.

As an attorney, his cases have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The National Law Review, The American Lawyer, the Texas Lawyer, and many other national publications. He has tried more than 75 cases to a verdict in a multitude of areas of the law including financial services, construction, oil and gas, complex commercial disputes, director and officer liability, non-compete/trade secret disputes, and catastrophic personal injury. He has served as a board member of the Houston Lawyer Referral Service and has worked on a number of pro bono cases over the years, including a prisoner abuse case that involved, at that time, one of the largest settlements with the state of Texas in Texas history for a single plaintiff. He Is also a board member of the Menil Art Museum in Houston.  He has written numerous legal papers for publication on various legal topics, such as punitive damages, preparing a witness for deposition and trial, witness credibility, cross examination, and jury selection.

Mr. Zavitsanos and his wife, Joni, have been married for more than 20 years and have four children.