On Saturday, a number of international experts discussed crises and conflicts in the multipolar world and how to maintain peace, as part of a symposium on “Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding: Shaping the Future of Global Leadership”.
The symposium comes within the activities of the second day of the “TRT World” channel forum, which started on Friday in Istanbul and ends later on Saturday.
The speakers discussed the crises of the region, especially the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, the opportunities for diplomacy and its role in resolving conflicts, especially the Turkish role, as well as the crisis between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
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Toivo Klar, the European Union’s special representative for the South Caucasus and Georgia, said that there is “a real desire and opportunity for peace, but after 30 years of conflict, building confidence requires a lot in the Azerbaijan and Armenia crisis.”
He added, “The European Union has worked intensively to build confidence, but it needs more, and leadership is necessary in both Yerevan and Baku. It is not just about the presence of leaders, it is about bringing peoples and societies together.”
He continued, “After 30 years of conflict, it is not easy to build peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and establishing trust takes time, and they must continue to establish dialogue after the cease-fire between the two countries.”
He added, “Turkey is the largest country in this region and has a central role to play roles in peace. Turkish diplomacy has great opportunities for normalization between the two parties and helping them build more confidence.”
For his part, Burhanuddin Doran, general coordinator of the Ankara-based Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), said that Turkey has developed “great capabilities to resolve conflicts in the surrounding countries out of necessity.”
And he added, “During time and through the successful leadership of President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan, Turkey succeeded in reaching an agreement between geographical differences. The world is experiencing great crises now and in the future as well, and we need global leadership to deal with these global crises.”
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And he indicated that “the crisis in Ukraine concerns the security of Europe and the world, and Turkey started from understanding this crisis and worked on dialogue regarding it, as it provided grounds through good relations it built with Russia and Ukraine at the leadership level.”
And he stressed that “to build this trust during conflicts, balance must be achieved, and this is what Turkey has done. There are differences with Russia in several files, such as the Libyan file, but there is agreement in other files, such as energy, for example, and therefore it is possible to dialogue with it and with Ukraine for the same matter.”
He pointed out that “Turkey is a reliable country, and experiences prove that there is a need for dialogue in order to give conflicts in the world opportunities for resolution, and if there is no courage on the part of the leaders, there will be many crises in the world in the future.”
For her part, Raghda Dergham, founder of the “Think Center” in Beirut, said, “The country’s leadership in Lebanon is appalling and corrupt, and the country is a victim of proxy wars.”
She added, “We congratulate Turkey for its role in the issue of the grain crossing, and this is the creativity in diplomacy in achieving success in relations with countries, and this diplomacy provides opportunities for resolving disputes, as in Ukraine and Russia.”
