UN looks to build creative cooperation with Turkey

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

Similar UN projects were done previously in Mumbai and Los Angeles. AA photo

The United Nations is seeking to piggy-back on the success of Turkish soap operas across the region by cooperating with the Turkish creative industry to promote its millennium goals, according to a high-level official at the global body.

Following cooperation with Hollywood, Bollywood and Nollywood (Nigeria), the international body would also like to cooperate with the Turkish creative industry, Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, the U.N. undersecretary-general for communications and public information, said yesterday.

There are already 40 projects where U.N. experts work together with scriptwriters to see how their content can include the promotion of millennium goals that range from halving extreme poverty rates to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Launsky-Tieffenthal, who was in Turkey for a U.N.-sponsored media seminar on peace in the Middle East, said he would use his visit in Turkey to get in touch with the Turkish creative industry. Meanwhile, following an Oct. 7 meeting with İbrahim Şahin, the head of state broadcaster TRT, Launsky-Tieffenthal also said the U.N. was also open to the idea of cooperating with Turkish Airlines on in-flight entertainment programs.

‘Focal point’

“The idea is to create a focal point in Turkey to enable the cooperation between the U.N. and the Turkish creative industry, as we have done in Los Angeles and Mumbai,” he told journalists.

The U.N. takes care of 44 million refugees, 90 million people are fed everyday by the World Food Program, a U.N. body, while more than 50 percent of the world’s children get vaccination provided by the international body, he said, noting that such successes did not receive enough attention and were sometimes overshadowed by shortcomings and frustrations on political issues. “There is also so much happening that sometimes stories neutralize each other.”

The last U.N. General Assembly continued to provide the world’s biggest platform for diplomatic interaction, as 193 states and three non-member observer states participated either at the head-of-state, prime-ministerial or foreign-minister level.

Around 2,000 to 3,000 meetings are estimated to have taken place among world leaders during the meetings.

The U.N. also made use of social media at the gathering, as the international hashtag #unga was viewed 1.7 billion times during the course of 10 days. The U.N.’s Facebook page was also visited by 3 million visitors. Turkey’s increasing role in the U.N. is highly appreciated, Launsky-Tieffenthal said, noting that its hosting of Syrian refugees was exemplary. As Turkey is underrepresented at the U.N. secretariat, preparations are being made to provide training to aspiring candidates that will need to pass exams to qualify to work at the U.N. body, he said.