Rising Voice from Paris
Paris, the capital of France, over the weekend hosted the 3rd Abant Platform abroad or the 10th platform overall since its inception.
You may have followed news reports on this platform from Zaman. The gathering attracted a high turnout of intellectuals and journalists from both Turkey and France, because it was really an effective and historic meeting as long as the content and substance were concerned.
Just as the first Abant Platform took place in 1998 along the coast of the Abant Lake in Bolu, as a call to find the middle ground for give-and-take, dialogue and tolerance on behalf of Turkey and the Turkish people's future, to maintain hopes and confidence in future prospects amid temper and nuisance (remember what happened on February 28, 1997), the Abant summit in Paris sent a more profound message to a broader audience. Today, there is mounting tension and considerable controversy not only in Europe but all around the world over discrepancies. Apart from the clash of civilizations, the deepening gulf between the rich and the poor, income inequality causing public outcries, the Western view of Islam as a new adversary, sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit, in years after the collapse of Soviet Union --- are signals of disaster.
We have been arguing all along that Turkey's European Union membership, amid intense feelings of anxiety, would be a great step towards laying the foundation for an alliance of civilizations, global peace as well as new civilization projects. There is, however, a combination of forces both in Turkey and in Europe acting together to hamper Turkey's membership, standing up against it and even using provocations to dynamite the road to the European Union.
The Abant conference in Paris was an effort to take global human values as the only common ground, to point towards / to prompt the rational, logical and human resolution as the real intellectual stance on peace and serenity in response to the ideological, national and confrontational reactions from and plots by this combination of forces.
Just as in Turkey, the Abant meeting in Paris attained its goal despite tendencies to ignore its significance as well as its historic mission, despite the tittle-tattle that it was a "gathering of Fethullah Gülen's followers" and despite efforts to distort its real meaning. Remember the disapproval chorus of the early Abant gatherings. The once confrontational people, most of whom are children of the '68 generation, opened the doors to dialogue and tolerance across Turkey when they started to show respect for one another. They managed to break the backbone of centuries-old cliques. Anyone will acknowledge the spirit of Abant contributing to the creation of a new spring when he/she starts writing about recent history. I will not refrain from saying that even though it has the potential to be very assertive, Abant is the place where potential energy is stored for the Turkish people to carry on with their long march, after an interval of three centuries, towards the further advancement of the international struggle to fulfill the universal mission as soon as it fell on their shoulders once again.
With the confidence and courage that Abant has inspired in us, with the energy we have stored in Abant, we had conferences abroad for the first time. As Mithat Melen said, we ourselves financed these gatherings instead of putting the burden on foreign invitees. It was crystal clear in Washington, in Brussels, and in Paris that Turkish intellectuals are ready to respond to contemporary challenges. The intellectuals in Turkey can always rely on their minds and recommendations to have their say. From Europe, the center of cultures and civilizations, they can express their readiness to do anything to walk hand in hand with all of humanity with special care not to look down on anybody and not to be influenced by anyone.
Even though it looks as if the Paris protests and strikes dimmed the voice of Abant from being heard, the effectiveness and longevity of this voice will soon receive widespread appreciation.
ZAMAN
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