Turkey hosts second OIC commission meet

ANKARA

Turkish President Abdullah Gül (R), Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah (L) and Saudi Arabian King Abdullah pose for a photo at an OIC summit in Mecca. REUTERS Photo

A meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Human Rights Commission was held yesterday in the Turkish capital of Ankara, hosted by OIC chief Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.

Davutoğlu, speaking at a joint press conference with İhsanoğlu following the meeting, said that the commission was an independent and permanent structure. The commission demonstrates the true face of Muslims and their humanitarian sympathies, he said.

“Whenever the OIC launches an initiative, Turkey will take part in it and extend the necessary support,” he said. The first meeting of the commission was hosted in Jakarta in May. Davutoğlu said the commission did not have a technical structure, but rather a philosophical basis. “It is a wide-scale global platform where the problems of the Muslim world and basic humanitarian matters are addressed,” he said. Many people think the civilization of the Islamic world does not conform to universal humanitarian values, but this is mistaken, Davutoğlu said.

“These are our values as well. They were not injected into the Islamic world from outside. Islam was substantively founded on these values,” he said. “It does not matter whether it happens tens of thousands of kilometers away. Wherever there is a humanitarian issue and a violation of human rights [...] Turkey will be there.”