Distinguished members of the press,

We have just finished the closing plenary of the First Alliance of Civilizations Forum. During the course of the Forum, we had very useful meetings yesterday and today. I thank Spain for hosting this timely and important Forum and for their gracious hospitality.

The strong interest in the Madrid Forum and the high level participation prove that the Alliance of Civilizations initiative we launched together with Spain back in 2005 is now widely accepted and is in full operation.

I also wish to thank the Alliance High Representative, President Sampaio, who is leading, monitoring and guiding the Alliance and the UN Secretary-General, His Excellency Ban Ki-moon, who has placed the initiative under his personal auspices. Our Alliance aims to counter the prejudices and polarizations taking shape on the basis of cultures and religions. Definitely, cultural and religious diversity is a source of enrichment, rather than a threat. This being the fact, the international community has to display solidarity and cooperation in order to be able to deal effectively with artificial divisions and extremists tendencies.

With the benefit of its unique position and wealth of experience accumulated as a result of intensive cross fertilization with different cultures, Turkey believes that the common values of humanity form a stronger centre of attraction than existing differences in cultural and religious traditions. I am of the opinion that radical tendencies, violence or terror cannot and should not be identified with the essense of any religion or culture. Terrorism is a crime against humanity, regardless of its source, pretext or ambition.

The Madrid Forum has brought together leading statesmen, diplomats, academicians and journalists and made it possible to hold a useful exchange of views on the implementation of the Alliance’s objectives. The interventions made in the plenaries and working sessions and proposals put forward suggest that the international community wishes to see friendship and cooperation rather than new areas of conflict and that the common denominators bringing us together are stronger than the elements leading to division. In our age of growing mutual inter-dependence, global security is indivisible. It is therefore significant that a very high number of countries and international organizations have joined the Group of Friends of the Alliance of Civilizations.

Naturally, non-governmental organizations and the media also have an important part to play in the efforts to strengthen cross-cultural dialogue and understanding. Without undermining in any way the freedom of the press and the freedom of expression, reporting objectively and responsibly will no doubt make a constructive contribution to the existing efforts for dialogue. It is encouraging to see that the overwhelming majority of the world press already acts in this manner.

The high number of projects and mechanisms launched during the Forum proves that the Alliance has now moved on to the implementation phase. I am pleased to declare that Turkey has prepared its own National Strategy for cross-cultural dialogue. As part of this Strategy, Turkey will implement many concrete projects in the fields of education, youth and media.

It is significant that the First Forum was hosted by Spain, which houses magnificient examples of Andalucian art and architectural heritage on its territory. I am particularly pleased that the Second Forum to be organized in 2009 will this time be held in Turkey, which has adopted co-existence and the fight against discrimination as its guiding principles throughout its history.