UPDATE 2 - Istanbul conference begins to ‘generate new ideas’ to solve problems facing humanity

UPDATES WITH REMARKS FROM SEVERAL SPEAKERS

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – Existing solutions and structures have failed to solve grave issues facing humanity, which demand “rethinking” and “generation” of new ideas and outlook, said a senior Turkish politician on Friday.

“We are going through times of war, inequality, poverty, terrorism, injustice,” said Numan Kurtulmus, vice chair of the Justice and Development (AK) Party. “All of these issues are manmade which do not belong to any single region or country … they are global in nature.”

Kurtulmus was addressing a two-day Politics and New Paradigms Forum, hosted by the AK Party in Turkish metropolis Istanbul.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to address the event on Saturday.

Many scholars, academics and practitioners are attending the forum which will conclude on weekend.

“As the new problems continue to emerge, this crisis and chaos demand we must generate additional ideas and solutions,” said Kurtulmus.

The AK Party has completed 20 years in power on Thursday, Kurtulmus said, regretting that current approaches, ideas and paradigms have “failed” to solve the existing and new problems facing the world.

“We are here to discuss and generate new issues,” he said about the conference.

- Mutual understanding, joint approach

Pointing out the proxy wars, trade and economic wars, as well as hybrid and conventional wars, Kurtulmus said the European and Western nations were facing “challenges of growing racism and nationalism rooted in xenophobia and Islamophobia, and rightwing politics.”

“This has clearly poisoned the politics,” he said.

On the COVID-19 pandemic that hit the world since early 2020, Kurtulmus said the effects of the deadly infection will continue for a while.

“This pandemic brought to light what was invisible until recently,” he said, regretting that the existing international system has failed to solve these issues.

“As we haven’t used joint policies and approaches, we face such challenges,” he said.

Kurtulmus said the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has further deepened the crisis and chaos on security of food, energy and water.

“New ideas and outlook are needed to resolve these issues, even along with new institutional structures,” he said. “They can’t be solved by existing structures which have lost their functions.”

Kurtulmus added: “As no power has the capacity to resolve conflicts on their own, nor does the global system, therefore for the future of politics and humanity, solutions on the basis of mutual understanding and fairness are needed.”

- Istanbul grain deal ‘crucial lifeline for humanity’

Touching on humanitarian diplomacy approach adopted by Türkiye, Kurtulmus said it is “our nation’s priority area.”

“The successful grain deal really shows Türkiye’s importance in the global politics,” he said, lauding the role of the Turkish president who continued relations with Ukraine as well as Russia since the war began in February.

“The grain corridor is crucial lifeline for humanity,” he said.

Türkiye, the UN, Russia, and Ukraine signed an agreement on July 22 in Istanbul to resume Black Sea grain exports, which paused after the Russia-Ukraine war began in February. A Joint Coordination Center with officials from the three countries and the UN was set up in Istanbul to oversee the shipments.

Pushing back efforts to criminalize the challenge of migration, Kurtulmus said this challenge “concerns every corner of the world but it is not the basic reason.”

“Migration is result of poverty, occupation, inequality, unfairness. Migration is consequence not the basic reason,” he said. “And it is unavoidable in such situation.”

Calling for effective international organizations, the AK Party vice chair said the international politics “must generate new ideas and solutions.”

Putting forth how Türkiye sees the new paradigms in future international engagements, Kurtulmus said humanity, freedom, justice, and equality should form “core of politics.”

“Universe should be shared by all of the humanity and a fair economic understanding is the need of the hour.

“These ideas will help build world peace,” he said, stressing that only ideas will not work.

“Putting forth good and correct solutions and improved mechanisms are important part of achieving a fair world,” Kurtulmus said.

- ‘Arab Spring not dead’

The “first phase” of Arab Spring has ended but the movement has “not ended in itself,” said Rafik Abdessalam, Tunisia’s former foreign minister.

“Possibility of change is still there in Arab countries,” Abdessalam said, pointing out demonstrations in other regions including in Sudan.

“The region is not immune from change,” he asserted.

He also said the world was currently seeing a “new era of full transformation in knowledge, politics, science and technology.”

“We are moving past the international order formed after the demise of the USSR … towards a more multi-polar order. But it is not stable yet … Everything is fluid and interchangeable,” he argued.

However, he said the features of the new emerging order “are not discernible yet.”

Abdessalam said Türkiye was “now in better position as compared to other countries in the region.”

In Tunisia, he said, people were “facing political regress and situation is becoming complicated.”

Despite taking a path towards democratization, “Tunisians are paying price for political regress in what happened in other countries including in Libya,” he said.

- Stability in Middle East important for world politics’

Quansheng J Zhao, a US-based academic, said peace and stability in Middle East was “important” for world politics and the US-China cooperation.

Acknowledging that China has grown as economic power, Zhao said: “China would stick to multi-polar power” parity as it is yet to yield influence in global politics and military arenas.

Predicting a “huge impact on global order” if both the US and China “play leadership role” in global economy, he said the era of President Xi Jinping signifies “China is getting stronger.”

“The Chinese strategic priorities have shifted to the current stage of getting stronger in term of its sovereignty and security,” he said, adding Washington’s priority is to “keep its own global leadership.”

Calling US’ post-Cold War position a “hegemon,” Zhao said: “The US would like to decouple from China but in reality, they are intertwined.”

- ‘Türkiye must focus on increasing its national capacity’

Burhanettin Duran, head of Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research, an Ankara-based think tank, said while the world was “changing” and “headed to a point of fracture,” Türkiye “must focus on increasing its national capacity.”

“Crises and wars had greater weight in the past,” he said, arguing industrial revolution “made a breakthrough but it brought colonialism.”

“The causes of contradiction in freedom, justice and equality can be found in industrial revolution,” he said.

At a time when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had triggered a call “World is Bigger Than Five,” competition of major powers was “making it difficult for a stable and peaceful world,” Duran said.

While Türkiye was at top exposed to “most important risks” as the largest host of migrants, Ankara “must continue to increase its national capacities, use major power competition to its advantage, and continue pursuing balanced policies in international arena,” he argued.

“Century of Türkiye must be bolstered as Turkish policies should generate stability and prosperity in the region,” he said.

Pointing out the need for reform at the UN, Duran said the new emerging world should pursue collaboration, justice and human dignity.

- Restoration of human rights, dignity urged

Taking a leaf from anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, the African nation’s former ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool, called for “restoration of human rights and human dignity.”

“No people be despised, otherized and their cultures alienated,” he said, adding that people in their fight against colonialism showed it in South Africa under Nelson Mandela.

Describing the current international system as “double edged,” he said the world has “never seen such wealth but also not such poverty and alienated people.”

While the world has “never seen such breathtaking technology, we also have never seen destruction of environment, drought, floods, water, energy, and food scarcity,” Rasool said.

With an emphasis on finding drivers of migration and mobilization, he regretted that while the world has “welcomed mobility of wealth” it has not done so in the case of migrants.

Rasool said the current system was undergoing “triple crisis” of “persistent economic crisis, environmental crisis and human crisis.”

“So many people live on wealth and good will of other people,” he said, pointing out “an enormous human crisis.”

- ‘Huge potential but less development in Muslim world’

Sharing economic potential of the Muslim bloc under the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a senior official Nebil Dabur, however, said the Muslim geographies were seeing upward trend of conflicts.

Referring to oil resources which belong to the Muslim-majority nations, he said six out of eight “maritime choke points are controlled by the OIC member nations.”

Dabur, who is the director general of Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre at the OIC, said: “This potential has not been exploited for development” of the Muslim nations.

“While the OIC continues to promote global peace and stability, it is still out of reach,” he said, pointing out that the number of armed conflicts in Muslim geographies, among all world conflicts, “has increased from 40% to 57%.”

“One-third of total world conflict casualties happened in the OIC countries … It is destructive, human tragedy, which is taking toll on lives of thousands,” said Dabur.

He called on the OIC to “focus on conflict-preventing diplomacy and transferring a system that promotes peace, human rights and inclusive development.”

- ‘Right information healthy for democracy’

The public sphere needs to be “protected from disinformation,” and “people need to enjoy truth (which) will help democracy,” said Fahrettin Altun, head of Türkiye’s Communications Directorate.

“Right and truthful information is important for democratic discussions,” he said, moderating a panel titled “Politics and Media in the Digital Age.”

He warned any opposition to regulating digital media “will only serve instability” and urged conventional media and social media companies to play their role in helping counter disinformation.

Academic Zakir Avsar said public authority and individuals “should act together” to avoid consequences of disinformation.

“Public authority needs to make individuals and masses conscious of information by raising awareness and increasing media literacy,” said Avsar, a professor at Haci Bayram Veli University in the capital Ankara.

Avsar said laws to regulate digital media was needed “otherwise it is all chaos.”

“Certain freedoms can only be exercised when there is regulation,” he added, lauding the Turkish parliament for taking a lead to pass one such legislation.

Idil Osman from the UK-based SOAS University, said there was a need to “redefine how we see democracy.”

“Democracy itself does not mean western democracy … it is the will of the people which can take any shape for different nations and regions,” she said.

Warning against “galvanizing Western democracy as universal one,” she said such an approach was “problematic.”

“We need to think people as human being (first) but Western media is differentiating people according to hierarchy they occupy in the world,” said Osman.

Describing humanitarianism, development, terror, pandemic, war as global issues, she called for “a collective approach where media plays a key role, therefore a useful tool for the whole humanity.”

Aysegul Komsuoglu Citipitioglu from Istanbul University supported Osman’s argument, emphasizing “Türkiye and (other) countries which have this perspective will play a critical role.”

“It will help a lot on foreign policy front (too),” she added.

Pointing out “strong” institutional culture established by Türkiye, Citipitioglu said with changing times, there is requirement of “a new institutional culture” when we talk about “what does it mean to be a global citizen.”

The professor, who called for “raising values among young people,” said the digital world is “indispensable part of our physical world.”

Turkish lawmaker Naci Bostanci called for “a wholistic system” to fight disinformation and terrorist propaganda.

“We will benefit from technology to transform but civil society, social media companies will also need to have a wholistic perspective,” he said.

Besides adopting national legislations, “we have to adhere to international regulation as well,” Bostanci said.

“If technology companies do not participate in it (national legislation), it will be chaos,” he said, pointing out challenges to the national laws, as platform providers, including social media companies, are based out of that specific country where the law is adopted.

“These companies will say ‘we are not bound to your national law’,” he said.

“Thus, there is need for a global and wholistic approach … Cooperation and solidarity are needed to fight the disinformation,” he said, adding: “Disinformation legislation also brings with it some criteria.”

“We need restrictions, regulations on social media, freedom of expression but following certain principles,” he said.