SECRETARY-GENERAL MEETS WITH PRIME MINISTER YILMAZ OF TURKEY

Press Release
SG/T/2056

SECRETARY-GENERAL MEETS WITH PRIME MINISTER YILMAZ OF TURKEY

ANKARA, 31 May -- Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said today that States must allow for increased representation of new global actors if they wanted to prevent the chaotic breakdown of order caused by "the strains of globalization".

Those actors, he said, included non-governmental organizations, representatives of business and academia, and parliamentarians. The Secretary-General was addressing a gathering of politicians, academics, diplomats and journalists at the Centre for Strategic Studies in Ankara, on the second day of his official visit to Turkey.

Later in the day, he held talks with Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz. They were expected to discuss the Organization's financial crisis and ongoing reform efforts, and Turkey's contributions to the activities of the United Nations system and to peace-keeping operations in particular. Turkey, a founding member of the United Nations, currently has troops or observers in five operations -- Georgia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Eastern Slavonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and on the Iraq-Kuwait border.

Other topics on the agenda included Cyprus, the former Yugoslavia, the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia.

In the evening the Secretary-General and Mrs. Boutros-Ghali attended a dinner hosted in their honour by Prime Minister and Mrs. Yilmaz.

This morning the Secretary-General visited the mausoleum of Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish Republic. He laid a wreath at his grave and toured the Ataturk Museum.

Tomorrow, the Secretary-General is scheduled to meet the Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, Mustafa Kalemli.

The Secretary-General is accompanied on this visit by his Special Adviser, Under-Secretary-General Ismat Kittani; the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Europe, Yves Berthelot; and the Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Turkey, Paul van Hanswijk de Jonge.

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