Distinguished Guests,

Dear Students,

It is a great pleasure for me to be here today among the future diplomats and leaders of the world!

I would like to thank Prof. Ali Doğramacı, Honorary Chairman of Bilkent Laboratory and International High School, Mr. Chris Green, Director-General of the school, Ms. Başak Akman, Director-General of MUNESCO and members of the organizing committee of MUNESCO for giving me the opportunity to address the distinguished participants of MUNESCO 2013.

At the outset, I would like to express my sincere appreciation for what MUNESCO has been doing for many years to cultivate dialogue and understanding on a global scale.

Today’s youth will shape our future. And enabling them to have a better understanding of the global issues that affect us all is crucial in establishing a world order where humanity is at the center.  

Indeed, diplomats can at best create wonders in resolving current conflicts, containing tensions and facilitating dialogue.

But unless the leaders of tomorrow embrace a common peaceful vision for the future, peace can never be sustained. 

And that is precisely how I see the mission of MUNESCO.

You are providing students from various corners of the world with the opportunity to view global issues from different perspectives at an early age.

It is through your interactions and exchanges that we will be able to reach a better understanding of what unites us and how we can achieve our common objectives.

Given that the youth with their open minds and hearts are much better placed to come up with tolerant, unprejudiced and innovative ideas, the importance of this exercise cannot be overstated.

It is also a source of pride for me to see that MUNESCO has now become a trademark of Turkey.

In this regard, I congratulate the Bilkent Laboratory and International High School for their initiative to bring MUNESCO to Turkey in 2005 and host it successfully over the years.

Choosing Turkey as the venue for organizing the MUNESCO is no surprise at all.

Dear Participants,

Given Turkey’s central position straddling several regions and thus influencing some international issues, it is quite reasonable that students from all over the world meet with each other in Turkey.

This is the perfect location to enter into the world of international relations. Turkey is at the crossroads where Europe, Asia and Africa meet each other.

Indeed, since the end of the Cold War, Turkey has increasingly moved towards the epicenter of international relations.

Today within three hours of flying distance from Istanbul you can reach more than 50 countries, as well as regions like the Balkans, Black Sea, Mediterranean, Caucasus, Central Asia, Middle East and North Africa.

These are places where international politics plays itself out in terms of threats, risks and opportunities. The course of events in this wider geography will determine the nature of the world we are going to leave to next generations.

And Turkey by the mere virtue of its geo-strategic location, along with its growing means and capabilities, has the ability to make an impact in all these regions.  

But Turkey’s centrality goes beyond geographical considerations. It also holds a unique place with respect to the cultural cleavages that increasingly tend to shape perceptions and understandings in our time.

Indeed, in today’s world there is an alarming tendency to accentuate and even widen the fault-lines based on cultural and religious differences.

The clash of civilizations theory still draws followers from a relatively large constituency.  

But Turkey on its own merits provides an anti-thesis to these doomsday scenarios. It demonstrates that cultural and/or religious differences are no barrier to embracing universal values.

In fact, the human civilization is the accumulation of contributions made by all cultures and religions.

This is precisely what has guided us in launching the Alliance of Civilizations initiative in 2004 together with Spain.

This initiative, which now presents the largest global forum after the UN itself, aims at raising awareness of our commonalities.

At the same time, it also fosters an understanding that our cultural and/or religious differences are sources of richness rather than that of conflict and hostility.

After all we are all on the same boat and no matter how different we are culturally or religiously we are heading towards the same destination.

And the main conduits to spread this message of the Alliance have been identified as education, media, migrant communities, and above all the youth.

Indeed, a great majority of the programs within the framework of this initiative are geared to bring together youth from different nations and give them the opportunity to devise ways and means of jointly tackling issues of common interest.

This brings me back to the importance of MUNESCO in cultivating and inspiring debate, dialogue and understanding among an eclectic group of young students representing different geographies and cultures, but sharing the same ideals and aspirations. 

In diplomacy, and in any relationship for that matter, the most important thing is to be able to understand the position of your counterpart and learn to make empathy with it.

Without such a meaningful dialogue where parties not only talk to each other but also hear them or where they not only listen to each other’s position but understand what it entails too, there is no way a positive outcome can emerge.

In this respect, MUNESCO and its participants can be seen as the ultimate mediators or diplomats of all times since you contribute in no small ways to meeting all these requirements.

Although the prospects for a peaceful and prosperous world are more positive than ever, there are still daunting challenges ahead of us.

Terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, transnational organized crime, illegal trafficking of all kinds (drugs, human beings, weapons etc.), along with poverty, climate change, food shortages and energy security, all require our concerted actions to be effectively addressed.

We have to act in partnership with other countries sharing the same concerns and objectives.

The international organizations are key instruments for international cooperation where the UN and its subsidiary organizations have been on the fore front.

Besides being a key forum for international politics, the UN contributes on a daily base to economic development, social justice and the protection of human rights around the world.

United Nations and its agencies  provides food to 90 million people , assists over 36 million refugees, vaccinates 2,5 million children, help 370 million people to fight poverty, provides 12,4 billion USD humanitarian assistance. 

At its Millennium Summit in 2000, the UN adopted Millennium Development Goals  (MDG’s) to eradicate poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empowerment of women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability, create a global partnership for development. 

Dear Participants,

Everywhere in the world there is a growing consciousness on the part of citizens, especially the youth, of their rights and liberties, as well as a renewed activism to claim them in full.

This is why we need aware and responsible citizens more than ever.

We have something very important in common: our shared concern and sense of responsibility for the world’s future.

In that context I welcome the theme of this year’s conference “one for a billion”

The world is ready and waits for the graduates of MUNESCO to make a difference.

In fact, model UN programs all over the world make useful contributions.

However, modeling the UNESCO in particular, as you do, is rather unique and has a special role in creating a broader understanding of the different perspectives that impact the way we deal with global issues.

Here you address not only issues of political, economic and security significance.

You go beyond that and take up the social, cultural and educational aspects of how we see the world.

I would like to see you to come up with new ideas.

Don’t stick too closely to the current paradigms of international affairs and use this opportunity to let your ideas and your ideals flow freely.

These are usually where the root causes of either the problems or the solutions lie.

This is precisely how Turkey also approaches international relations. We do not see our relations with others only as a means of promoting our political and economic interests.

We try to create a sense of belonging. In that respect, for us, cultural understanding and social cohesion is as important as political dialogue and economic interdependence.

One can certainly see that in our efforts to improve relations with many countries we try to foster a common sense of win-win situation.

This is why, for example, we have lifted the visas with almost all our neighbors with a view to facilitating social contact and mutual understanding at every level.

The same attitude can be seen also in our commitment to take on a more prominent role in global development issues.

For instance when we hosted the UN Summit of the Least Developed Countries in Istanbul in 2011 we have not only focused on the economic dimensions of the problems at hand.

We have also organized for the very first time in the history of these summits a forum of intellectuals from all over the world to discuss the reasons of underdevelopment and the ways to tackle them.

In a way it was a replica of MUNESCO at the level of academicians and intellectuals.

In other words, the goal of MUNESCO is very close to our heart as the practitioners of Turkish foreign policy.

We are heartened to see young minds from all over the world sharing our excitement and enthusiasm in creating a better world for the generations to come.

When I look at you today, I see the politicians, diplomats, experts, journalists, entrepreneurs and opinion makers of tomorrow.

And I see many reasons to be optimistic for the future.

Thank you.