MARQUETTE, Mich.— Sedat Aybar, a Turkish scholar of economics and politics, will present “The Political Economy of Development: A Case of Turkey and Its Transition from Periphery to the Centre.” His talk is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 16, in Mead Auditorium in the West Science Building. The public is invited free of charge.

Turkey’s unique history, based on the Ottoman past, gives the country a different kind of development path than many other nations in the region. The founders of the republic were modernizers who were able to achieve a compromise among conflicting interests from a variety of classes, sometimes by using Draconian measures. More recently, Turkey is altering its status to position its power more centrally. Membership in NATO, the United Nations Security Council and the European Union are all important aspects of this development, which this presentation addresses.

Aybar is chair of the economics department and director of the Centre for African and Middle Eastern Studies at Kadir Has University in Istanbul. He consults regularly with the governments of Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova and previously consulted Ethiopia, South Africa and Britain.

The presentation is sponsored by the English department, the provost’s office and the international programs office.