ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN TURKEY, 12-13 NOVEMBER

Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in the late afternoon on Sunday, 12 November, in Istanbul, Turkey, after a brief stopover in Zurich, Switzerland.  Turkey would be the first stop in a four-nation visit that would also take him to Kenya, Ethiopia and Switzerland.

Shortly after his arrival, the Secretary-General met with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Dolmabahce Palace.

On Monday morning, he met with Amre Moussa, the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, and then, with Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Misnad, a member of the High-Level Group for the Alliance of Civilizations.

He and the Turkish Prime Minister met with Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero before proceeding to the final meeting of the High-Level Group for the Alliance of Civilizations, held at the Ciragan Palace.

At the final meeting of the Alliance, the Secretary-General accepted the Group’s Action Plan.

Upon receiving the report, the Secretary-General said that the report rightly notes that today, for better or worse, we clearly do not live in different civilizations, with migration, integration and technology bringing peoples closer together.  He called for concerted social and political action to repair relations between people of different traditions and cultures.

He called for steps to protect freedom of religion, to build bridges between cultures through education and to create opportunities for young people to enable them to avoid extremism.  But, he added that as long as Palestinians live under occupation, and, as long as Israelis are blown up in buses and dance halls, so long will passions everywhere be inflamed.  (See Press Release SG/SM/10733.)

Following a cultural event that included musical and dance performances ranging from classical to modern, the Secretary-General attended a luncheon hosted by the Turkish Prime Minister, in honour of the participants of the Alliance event.

He then had a joint press conference with the Turkish and Spanish Prime Ministers during which the Secretary-General elaborated on the work of the Alliance.

He also met with former French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine, another member of the High-Level Group.  And, as part of the programme for Alliance members, the Secretary-General took a boat tour of the Bosphorus in the early evening.

He left Istanbul for Nairobi, Kenya, on Tuesday morning.