Istanbul summit seeks action plan

Bekir Karlığa, chairman of the National Coordination Committee of the Alliance of Civilizations, said it was time for action at the forum.
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Turkey, co-chairman of the initiative with Spain, is hosting the second forum on Monday in Istanbul with the participation of six heads of state and three dozen foreign ministers.  Â

Launched in 2005 under the auspices of the United Nations, the Alliance of Civilizations seeks to address tensions across cultural divides that threaten to inflame existing political conflicts or trigger new ones.

"At the outset, general principles were established about the initiative," said Karlığa. It is a high-level group of 20 eminent personalities that are mandated to produce a report exploring the roots of polarization between cultures and societies worldwide and propose practical recommendations to address this growing trend. The group issued a report in 2006 with concrete recommendations for an action-driven approach to prevent conflicts, reduce tension, and increase dialogue and cooperation among civilizations, said Karlığa. In April 2007, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Jorge Sampaio, former president of Portugal, as high representative for the alliance. This marked the beginning of the second phase of the Alliance of Civilizations, with the development of an action-oriented implementation plan focusing on initiatives and projects in the areas of youth, media, education and migration.

"With the second forum, which will take place in Istanbul, we need to give impetus to the action plan," said Karlığa, adding that Turkey has already prepared its own action plan. Ten ministries have already issued their action plan with several projects and the national coordination committee is reviewing the implementation, said Karlığa. One such project is to set up a committee within the ministry of education to review schoolbooks from the perspective of cultural issues.

Karlığa dismissed criticism over the name of the initiative, which indirectly implies that there is a clash of civilization, the controversial argument put forward by scholar Samuel Huntignton in the early 1990s. "Clashes are between cultures. There are no clashes between civilizations," Karlığa told Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Slovenian President Danilo Turk will attend the forum as well as Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. U.S. President Barack Obama, will also take part in some parts of the forum. Mohammed Khatami, former president of Iran will also attend the forum. Both Obama and Khatemi are scheduled to attend the dinner Monday night. This may provide the first venue where Obama stands under the same roof with an Iranian prominent figure.