Ministerial meeting that was dedicated to the theme of "Building Bridges: Using Soft Power to Promote a Culture of Peace” started with the welcoming remarks and reporting of Nassir Abdulaziz Al- Nasser, UN High Representative for the UNAOC. 31 countries and 5 international organizations attended the Ministerial meeting.
The meeting has served as the first occasion where the Secretary General of the Turkic Council has addressed at the UN Headquarters. While announcing the Secretary General’s point of order, High Representative Al-Nasser introduced the new Secretary General and the Turkic Council to the participants of the ministerial meeting and congratulated the Secretary General for his appointment at the 6th Summit of Heads of States of the Turkic Council. Mr. Al-Nasser also praised the ongoing cooperation between the two organizations.
In his speech, Secretary General Amreyev underlined that regional organizations have significant roles in contributing to the global agenda in every aspect and are also instrumental in promoting the “Culture of Peace” in their environments through employing soft power measures.
Expressing that problems cannot be tackled with methods causing them, he noted that security measures are not enough to prevent conflicts and tensions surrounding us, pointing to the need for comprehensive and inclusive measures targeting the root causes of conflicts.
Mentioning the Member States’ strong relations with UNAOC, Secretary General elaborated on the past, present and prospective meetings and activities hosted by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey with a specific reference to the 2nd and 7th UNAOC Global Forums held in Istanbul and Baku in 2009 and 2016 respectively; the fruitful cooperation between the UNAOC and the Permanent Missions in New York and the Universities of the Member States; as well as the 6th Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional religions to be organized on 10-11 October 2018 in Astana to foster tolerance and respect for religious and cultural diversity.
Secretary General continued as saying that the mandate given by its Member States has put before the Turkic Council a significant task of supporting the regional peace and development to contribute to the global peace and development agenda and stressed that the projects realized by the Turkic Council in the fields of Politics, Economy, Education, Youth, Sports and ICT, among others, help prevent the emergence of conflicts in its region.
Secretary General provided the Ministerial meeting with information on Turkic Council’s joint projects held with the UNAOC as well as significant initiatives of the Turkic Council Member States to underpin the mission of UNAOC.
Saying that the cooperation between the Turkic Council and UNAOC is growing every year, Secretary General mentioned the international conference on the “Role of Youth in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism” in October 2016 in Istanbul, bringing together 300 young leaders and experts from 40 countries from Africa to Central Asia and the “Joint Youth Dialogue Exchange Workshop” in December 2017 in Istanbul, as successful examples of productive partnership. He went on to say that in commemoration of the Second Anniversary of the historic UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on “Youth, Peace and Security”, the workshop participants discussed issues relating to youth empowerment and the role the youth may take in peace processes and prevention of violent extremism.
Secretary General informed the meeting that the last Summit of the Heads of States of the Turkic Council held in Kyrgyzstan in September 2018 was dedicated to the theme of “Youth and Sports” as a token of emphasis that Turkic Council places on youth. He noted that Turkic Council has been annually organizing “International Youth Summer Camps and Festivals” in cooperation with relevant Ministries of our Member States and that so far, over 1500 youngsters have attended such activities. He expressed the readiness of the Turkic Council to develop cooperation with the “Summer Schools” initiative of the UNAOC in order to customize this project for our region.
Highlighting that Sport is another important area for empowering young people and bringing them together in a friendly and peaceful environment, Secretary General mentioned the World Nomad Games, hosted in 2014, 2016 and 2018 by the Government of Kyrgyzstan in partnership with the Turkic Council with the participation of sportsmen from some 100 countries as a true celebration of diversity and intercultural dialogue.
Secretary General provided information about the online platform for prevention of violent extremism planned to be realized in cooperation with UNDP to engage and capacitate young people with strategic skills, knowledge and tools through interactive approaches, and invited UNAOC to join hands in this process.
In his concluding remarks, Secretary General stressed: “Turkic Council is committed to promote the creation of the culture of peace in its region with tangible cooperation projects and is ready for cooperation with the UNAOC to support the global agenda to achieve this historical goal of our generation”.
