The Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) will hold its 26th Annual Congress in Ankara, Turkey, from 11 to 15 July 2012. As 2012 will also mark the 25th Anniversary of AESOP our aim is to celebrate the occasion with the participation of many distinguished guests and keynote speakers, along with a number of special sessions and activities. The Congress will also provide the setting for stimulating workshops, round-table discussions, and exciting excursions, during which issues of spatial planning and development specific to Ankara may also be explored.We believe that the congress motto "Planning to Achieve/Planning to Avoid" is an umbrella for a wide spectrum of planning concerns, and explicitly expresses the variety of functions planning has to accommodate in the face of the material conditions of the modern world. Global warming, environmental and ecological degradation, depletion of natural resources, natural and man-made hazards, and economic crises affect our modes of production, consumption, and mobility patterns, demanding for new strategies in socio-spatial organization and conduct.Participants to the congress are expected to contribute to the dilemmas of growth/degrowth, vulnerabilities/ resilience, and the contemporary relevance of planning in theoretical and practical terms, while pointing to the strengths and weaknesses of educational systems, and problems of local and regional geographies..We welcome our colleagues to a vibrant environment of sociable discussion.