The first day of the conference contained 4 different panels. Panel-1 entitled “Opportunities and challenges in the Wider Black Sea Region: Cooperation, Or…?” took place with the participation of distinguished speakers as Ambassador Lazăr COMĂNESCU, Secretary General, BSEC PERMIS Istanbul; Ambassador Rolf NIKEL, Vice President, German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP); Prof. Dr. Iulian CHIFU, State Counsellor, Foreign Policy, Security and Strategic Affairs, Romanian Prime Minister and Ambassador (R) Fatih CEYLAN, Former Representative of the Republic to Türkiye to NATO.
 

A lively discussion on Panel-2 “Eastern Mediterranean: Maritime disputes and geopolitical competition” with the valuable participation of Prof. Dr. Maria GAVOUNELI (Professor of International Law; Director, Refugee&Migration Studies Hub; Faculty of Law, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens); Prof. Dr. Alexander PROELSS (Chair in the International Law of the Sea and International Environmental Law, University of Hamburg; Member of the Board of the Foundation for the Law of the Sea) and Mithat RENDE (Ambassador (R), Former Permanent Representative of the Republic of Türkiye to the OECD).

The influence of Russia in and beyond Europe was discussed in Panel-3 at the 15th ISC 2023 with Roderich KIESEWETTER (Member of German Parliament, Special Representative Committee on Foreign Affairs/Spokesperson Crises Prevention), James F. JEFFREY (Ambassador, Chair, Middle East Program, Wilson Center), Dr. Benedetta BERTI (Head, Policy Planning in the Office of the Secretary-General, NATO) and Prof. Dr. Mitat ÇELİKPALA (Vice Rector, Kadir Has University).

On Monday, February 6, Türkiye was hit by two big earthquakes with the magnitudes of 7.7 and 7.6. A 500-kilometer-wide region in the southeast of the country with 10 provinces and approx. 13.5 million people were affected extensively. Over 1.400 emergency response personnel from more than twenty NATO Allies and partners were immediately deployed to Türkiye to support Turkish aid organizations in rescuing hundreds of people who were buried under collapsed buildings. More than 100 countries showed their solidarity and pledged humanitarian aid and monetary support.
“Solidarity in Crises: Disaster Diplomacy” was the subject of Panel-4 at the ISC 2023 with the participation of Ambassador Viktor MÁTIS (Ambassador of Hungary to the Republic of Türkiye), Nodar Kharshiladze (Founder, Georgian Strategic Analysis Center; Former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Former Deputy Minister of Defense of Georgia) and Ambassador Irit Lillian (Ambassador of the State of Israel to the Republic of Türkiye).

Ambassador (R) Tacan İLDEM (Chairman of the Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM), Member of NATO 2030 Independent Experts Group, Former NATO Assistant Secretary General) held a keynote Speech on “Security in the Black Sea region and its implications to the European Security Architecture“ on the last slot of the first day of the ISC 2023.

On the second day of the Istanbul Security Conference®️ 2023 the audience was divided into three parallel working groups. This part of the conference was held under Chatham House Rules. Working Group-1 “Shifting geopolitical landscapes in the 100th year of the Republic of Türkiye” was moderated by Afşin YURDAKUL (Journalist, News Anchor at Habertürk TV) with distinguished speakers such as Volkan BOZKIR (President of the 75th Session of UN General Assembly, Former Minister of EU Affairs, Member of Parliament, Ambassador); Dr. Gergely GULYÁS (Minister of Prime Minister's Office of Hungary) and Sir David LOGAN (Former UK Ambassador to the Republic of Türkiye).

On the second day of the Istanbul Security Conference® 2023 the audience was divided into three parallel working groups. This part of the conference was held under Chatham House Rules. Working Group-2 was on “Securitization of energy supply: National and regional actors – multilateral networks” with the moderation of Janani VIVEKANANDA (Head, Programme Climate Diplomacy and Security, Adelphi) and with distinguished speakers such as Dr. Pavel K. BAEV (Research Professor, Peace Research Institute Oslo-PRIO); Mehmet ÖĞÜTÇÜ (​Chairman, The London Energy Club and Global Resources Partners); Manfred GRUND (Member of German Parliament, Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs) and Prof. Michäel TANCHUM (International Relations, University of Navarra, Spain; Fellow, Strategic Studies Implementation and Research Centre, Başkent University Ankara).

On the second day of the Istanbul Security Conference®️ 2023 the audience was divided into three parallel working groups. This part of the conference was held under Chatham House Rules. Working Group- was on “Changing climate – Changing demographies: The future of migration” with the moderation of Omar KADKOY (Project Manager, The Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV) and with distinguished speakers such as Gerald KNAUS (Founding Chairman, European Stability Initiative (ESI) and Hesham YOUSSEF (Ambassador (R), Senior Fellow, Department of Middle East and North Africa, United States Institute of Peace).