PM Erdogan Cancels Plans to Attend Davos
The 2008 World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting is kicking off today in the Swiss resort of Davos without the participation of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The last-minute cancellation by Erdogan was due to his packed schedule in Turkey, said officials from his office, without elaborating. However, Economy Minister Mehmet Simsek, State Minister Mehmet Aydin, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, Energy Minister Hilmi Güler and Central Bank of Turkey Governor Durmus Yilmaz are still expected to attend the Davos meeting. Erdogan will be hosting Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, who is arriving today for a key three-day visit, which happens to coincide with the first three days of the WEF annual summit. Karamanlis will be visiting both Ankara and İstanbul.
News reports said Erdogan changed his mind about participating in the Davos event because the level of participation among world political leaders was low. Erdogan had been expected to meet with Israeli President Shimon Peres and German President Horst Köhler on the sidelines of the WEF summit.
The summit will highlight the "Power of Cooperative Innovation" as the principal theme and will host several leaders from government and business circles. Global economic turmoil is at the top of the agenda for the 2,500 world leaders, politicians and businessmen coming to the Swiss Alps for the meeting. Unlike previous years, the event will be low on showbiz glamour. Instead the issues will range from climate change and the Middle East and terrorism to the legacies of presidents Bush and Putin. Furthermore, Turkey's current economic policies and foreign policies will be discussed at a session on Jan. 26.
Some of the notable attendees are US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, French Prime Minister François Fillon, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, businessman Bill Gates and Jordan's Queen Rania. Rice is expected to address the issues of terrorism and global warming.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Afghani President Hamid Karzai, Israeli President Shimon Peres, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and World Bank President Robert Zoellick, News Corporation President Rupert Murdoch as well as artists such as Japanese singer Boro, musician Peter Gabriel and renowned Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho will be attending the Davos summit.
In addition to representatives from economic and business circles in Turkey, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Lloyd C. Blankfein, Kuwait National Bank CEO Ibrahim S. Dabdoub, CEO of Unicredit Group Allesandro Profumo, Ernst and Young Vice President Beth A. Brooke, Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent and British Airways Secretary-General Robert Webb are also expected to attend the reception. Turkish ministers and other VIPs at the WEF meeting are expected to attend a reception organized to introduce Turkey on Jan. 25.
Moreover, Sabanci Holding Chairwoman Güler Sabanci had been invited to speak at the International Business Council (IBC) meeting today. She will be the only person at the meeting from Turkish business circles.
Meanwhile, in addition to businessmen, renowned Turkish singers Sertab Erener and Demir Demirkan will also be present at the reception. They will perform songs from their project titled "Painted on Water," which includes classical Turkish folk songs in English with modern music fusion. Famous Turkish percussionist Burhan Öçal and pop singer Kenan Dogulu will also give concerts.
Turkey along with France will host the gala dinner for the first time. The Koç and Sabanci groups and Dogan Publishing Holding are planning the dinner.
Meanwhile, the contents of a report titled "Islam and the West: Annual report on the State of Dialogue" released by WEF this week will be discussed during the five-day forum.
The report features a Gallup Muslim-West Dialogue Index, which is a ranking of countries based on citizens' degree of optimism about the state of relations between the West and the Muslim world. Turkey received 36 points, behind countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, which acquired 43, 46 and 39 points, respectively.
The percentage of those who consider the interaction between the West and the Muslim world significant is 64, according to the report. Some 68 percent of Turkish society believes that the West doesn't respect the Muslim world, while 45 percent thinks that the Muslim world respects the West.
The report points to the Turkish schools scattered throughout Asian countries in particular. "Turkish diaspora groups have expanded their programs, which cover both Turkey and central Asian countries as well. The Turkey-based Fethullah Gülen movement has expanded its network of schools to 100 so far," says the report.
The report calls these Turkish schools as well as the new Fethullah Gülen Chair in Islamic Studies and Muslim-Catholic relations at the Australian Catholic University significant attempts to further dialogue among cultures.
The report indicates that most of the world population believes that the violent clashes between the West and the Muslim world could be avoided; however, they share a pessimistic view of the current state of relations between the two.
The report, which is the result of detailed research carried out by leading academics and experts, provides an overview of how Muslim and Western societies perceive each other at the political, social, economic and cultural levels. It is based on responses given by 1,000 people in each of the 21 Western and Muslim countries as well as analysis of media and other research performed in 2007.
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