‘Alliance of Civilizations’ a long way from reaching targets: Turkey's Erdoğan

BAKU – Anadolu Agency

AA photo

The United Nations’ Alliance of Civilizations is far away from attaining its foundational targets, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said April 26.

“As the international community, we are still very far from reaching goals that constitute the foundational aim of the alliance,” Erdoğan said April 25 in an address to the seventh U.N. Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) Global Forum in Baku. 

“We have failed to show the common, resolved effort expected from us to fight radical movements and the terror fed by these movements,” said Erdoğan.  

“We could not yet overcome the entrenched prejudices that have forced us to establish the Alliance of Civilizations and understanding that separates people relying on their beliefs, roots and cultures,” he said.

The UNAOC aims to promote harmony and improve understanding and cooperative relations among nations.        
“No faith, religion, culture, or conscience approves of making an attempt on [someone’s] life. Islam especially is a religion whose name means peace. Does a religion whose meaning is peace allow terrorism?” asked Erdoğan. 

“Terror has no place in our religion, and organizations such as Daesh, which emerge in the name of Islam, have nothing to do with Islam,” Erdoğan said using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).        

The president said the world had failed to take a united stance against the pain caused by “bomb after bomb that exploded in Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, France, Pakistan, Turkey, and Belgium.” 

“We failed to find a solution to political disputes, injustices, and inequalities which spawned an environment of violence,” he said. 

Erdoğan said the world should work for peace with a joint fight against sectarianism, racism and terrorism.        
“We must view members of all races as human beings and love them. Here, this constitutes the basis of peace in the world,” he said.