Bridges between Cultures found in Paris

The conference, “Intercultural Bridges – The River Flowing Westward,” with the collaboration of Bahcesehir University (BAU) and UNESCO, was held and the documentary presentation was made in Paris.

 

The conference was held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris with the participation of State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, UNESCO Parliament Representative Ambassador Gürcan Balık, French Minister Responsible for French citizens living abroad Yamina Benguigui, Anna Lindh – advisor to the King of Morocco, Euro – Mediterranean Intercultural Dialogue Organization President Andre Azoulay, UNESCO Honorary Ambassador Samuel Pisa, TRT General Director İbrahim Şahin, UNESCO BAU Chairman of the Board of Trustees Enver Yücel and MEDAM’s Founding President, Prof. Dr. Bekir Karlıağa and a large number of politicians, academicians, writers and historians.

 

Speaking before the screening of “The River Flowing Westward,” which was produced in collaboration with Bahçeşehir University’s Civilization Studies Center (MEDAM) and TRT, the State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Bulent Arınç underlined that “There is not a single civilization. Naturally, every civilization takes something from its predecessors and also something passes on to their following generations.”

 

Indicating interaction of the recent development of technology and universal values, Bulent Arınç said, “In the globalized world, it is a fact that all civilizations are towards the “rising universal civilizations” concept which is rising on the shared values of all civilizations. We have witnessed the clash of civilizations thesis which was claimed during the Cold War. It has caused and also still is causing undesirable affects.

 

Yamina Benguigui, French Minister Responsible for French citizens living abroad, noted in her statement that important speeches were made during the conference in trust, faith and humanity. Saying the most important case in the documentary was the foundations of humanity that were thrown together, Benguigui expressed that sometimes humanity was stopped by obstacles. The French Minister said that, “I think we need to find a way to travel to the future. Today, along with Turkey we started questioning how it can be done. All together, we should take confident steps which are necessary for the development of humanity.”

 

Enver Yücel, Bahçeşehir University Board of Trustees Chairman, said that “If we listen to Turkish Anatolia, we can hear whisperings about peace, culture and living together. If we are searching for peace in the future and if we want to have this opportunity, we should remove the insulting words and sentences from the textbooks. They are even more dangerous than the nuclear weapons.”

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