4th Ethnosport Forum held in hybrid format in Istanbul

By Emre Asikci

ISTANBUL (AA) - The World Ethnosport Confederation (WEC) organized the fourth Ethnosport Forum in a hybrid format on Saturday under the motto "The Revival of Traditional Sports" with participants from 61 countries, including state officials, federation representatives.

The event that was held in Istanbul's Radisson Blu hotel, moderated by the World Ethnosport Confederation president (WEC) Necmeddin Bilal Erdogan while Turkish, Qatari, Serbian, Gambian, Malian, and Somalian sports ministers joined an online session.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences of UNESCO Gabriela Ramos, and Ministry of Sport and Tourism of Poland Anna Krupka delivered a video message in the forum.

Sending a video message to the online forum, Turkish President Erdogan said that the coronavirus pandemic had revealed the dilemmas of rigid, coercive popular culture as well as injustices between countries.

The prevalent mentality that praises individualism as ignoring spirituality, and despising traditional values, has exacerbated the problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, he noted.

"In fact, we have seen a gradual increase in young people's interest in sports in our country over the last year," he said, adding traditional sports, as well as the culture and values ​​they represent, will be more prominent in the world that will be reshaped in the wake of the pandemic.

The participants monitored the forum in six different languages on digital stages that have been specially prepared for them. The Saturday event lasted for one day and took its place among pioneering works in the world in terms of participant diversity.