Erdogan, Zapatero launch Alliance of Civilisations initiative

28/11/2005

The prime ministers of Spain and Turkey launched the inaugural meeting of the Alliance of Civilisations initiative Sunday, seeking to foster respect and dialogue between Islamic and Western societies.

(BBC Monitoring - 28/11/05; AP, Reuters, AFP, Turkish Press - 27/11/05; UN News Centre - 14/11/05)

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (right) chats with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the UN meeting in Mallorca on Sunday (27 November). [AFP]

The prime ministers of Spain and Turkey, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, launched the inaugural session Sunday (27 November) of the Alliance of Civilisations initiative, meant to foster respect and dialogue between Islamic and Western societies.

Zapatero first suggested the idea for the alliance in a speech before the UN General Assembly in September 2004, about six months after the bombing attacks in Madrid that killed more than 190 people. Turkey, where more than 60 people were killed in the November 2003 suicide bombings in Istanbul, later became a co-sponsor of the project, which was eventually backed by the UN and more than 20 countries.

"The Alliance of Civilisations is an effort to fight against all those who in any part of the world and using all kinds of distorted arguments... promote hatred and intolerance," Zapatero said Sunday at the start of the three-day meeting of the alliance's high-level group, taking place at the Mediterranean island resort of Palma de Majorca. "We have to avoid widening the gap between the Eastern and Western worlds."

The high-level group is co-chaired by by former UNESCO Director-General Frederico Mayor and Turkish Minister of State Mehmed Aydin, a professor of theology. Other members of the group include former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, South African Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Andre Azoulay, an adviser to Moroccan King Mohammed VI, as well as former French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine and outgoing Inter-American Development Bank head Enrique Iglesias.

The historic rivalry between the Christian and Turkish empires "has been transformed into a positive association," Zapatero said Sunday. "We must stop up the springs of extremism, win the battle of ideas and principles, feed peace-seeking minds, strengthen the instinct of co-operation in our hearts."

Calling on all humanity to stand against a clash of civilisations, Erdogan said extremism was not rooted in any one religion, language, country, race or nation, and hits targets in different parts of the world.

"The lack of understanding between civilisations is a great handicap and it turns into extremism, intolerance and terrorism, that's why it is so important to end with it," he said.

The group is due to report to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in the second half of 2006 on actions to counter extremism and promote mutual respect between civilisations and cultures.