Turkish Forum

Tag: UN

  • ‘Istanbul would be UN island soon’

    ‘Istanbul would be UN island soon’

    Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas has said that Istanbul would be a UN island soon.

    Topbas as the president of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and United Nations Advisory Committee of Local Authorities (UNACLA), met with Turkish journalists at the Turkish House after participating in a high-level panel of dignitaries regarding developments after 2015.

    He told the press members that with their efforts for opening of directorates and regional representation offices of UN in Istanbul would make Istanbul a UN island, and bring prestige to the city.

    He added that they want to be a solution partner of UN Millennium Development Plan and host the 3rd UN Habitat Meeting.

    Anadolu

  • UN Women to open regional office in Turkey

    UN Women to open regional office in Turkey

    United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women– will open a regional office in Turkey.

    Thanks to efforts by Turkish Foreign Ministry and Family & Social Policies Ministry, the office, which will be responsible from Europe and Central Asia, will be opened in Istanbul.

    UN Women will support intergovernmental organs while they are shaping up policies, and setting the norms and standards.

    It will also provide financial and technical support, encourage effective cooperation with civil society, and help members states to apply the standards.

    via UN Women to open regional office in Turkey – Trend.Az.

  • UN seeks religious support in fight against global hunger

    UN seeks religious support in fight against global hunger

    By: AFP | September 15, 2012 |

    ROME – The UN food agency Friday said it was looking for support from world religious leaders in the fight against global hunger as the agency’s chief met the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople.

    “Eradicating hunger not only makes economic and political sense, it is also a moral issue,” Food and Agriculture Organisation director-general Jose Graziano da Silva was quoted in a FAO statement as saying at the meeting. The FAO chief met Bartholomew I, a noted environmentalist, in Istanbul.

    FAO said Graziano da Silva had actively sought “to involve the world’s religions more closely in the fight against hunger” and this month also wrote to Cairo’s Al-Azhar mosque.

    In his letter to the mosque’s Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb, Graziano da Silva asked for support in efforts to eradicate global hunger and informed him of FAO’s activities in the drought-prone Horn of Africa.

    “We must achieve global food security in order to have a more secure world,” Graziano da Silva was quoted as telling the grand imam.

    Similar letters will be sent to other religious leaders, the FAO said. In June, Graziano da Silva was received in a private audience by Pope Benedict XVI in which he called for “renewed support of the Catholic Church in the fight against hunger at the global and local levels”.

    This news was published in print paper. Access complete paper of this day.

    via UN seeks religious support in fight against global hunger | The Nation.

  • Take action – Email your MP

    Take action – Email your MP

    Dear Friends of Azerbaijan,

    20th Anniversary of the Khojaly Tragedy – EDM 2690

    The European Azerbaijan Society (TEAS) is currently running a campaign to encourage MPs to sign Early Day Motion 2690, to be tabled on 26 February 2012 in the House of Commons to highlight the Khojaly tragedy when 613 men, women and children were killed by invading Armenian forces. EDM 2690 further notes that Armenia still illegally occupies 18 per cent of Azerbaijani territory in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions; and hopes that the Government can facilitate progress towards a peaceful resolution of this long-running conflict.

    If you are resident in the UK, please send a pre-written letter to your local MP at:
    Thank you.
    Best wishes from TEAS
  • UN raises fears over Iran’s nuclear weapons plan

    UN raises fears over Iran’s nuclear weapons plan

    By George Jahn in Vienna, AP

    The UN nuclear agency has said it is “increasingly concerned” about intelligence suggesting that Iran continues to secretly work on developing a nuclear payload for a missile and other components of a nuclear weapons programme.

    The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report said “many member states” are providing evidence for the assessment, describing information as “credible, extensive and comprehensive”.

    The report was made available after being shared with the 35 IAEA member nations and the UN Security Council. It also said Tehran has fulfiled a promise made earlier this year and started installing equipment to enrich uranium at a new location – an underground bunker better protected from air attack.

    Enrichment can produce both nuclear fuel and fissile warhead material, and Tehran – which says it wants only to produce fuel with the technology – is under four sets of UN Security Council sanctions for refusing to freeze it.

    Tehran also denies secretly experimenting with a nuclear weapons programme.

    www.independent.co.uk, 3 September 2011

  • Greek Cyprus to protest Turkey in UN, EU over gas drilling row

    Greek Cyprus to protest Turkey in UN, EU over gas drilling row

    Greek Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis
    Greek Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis

    Greek Cyprus’ new foreign minister will complain about Turkey to third countries and international organizations, including the UN Security Council and the European Union, in response to Turkish warnings regarding Greek Cypriot plans to drill for gas in the Mediterranean.
     

    Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis, who was appointed to the post in a cabinet reshuffle last week, said she will be discussing the matter with Greek officials during a visit to Athens later this week in order to formulate a common strategy against Turkish warnings, Greek Cypriot daily the Cyprus Mail reported on Tuesday.

    The Greek Cypriot government is also considering reporting Turkish statements to the UN in the hopes that the UN secretary-general will mention them in his next progress report on Cyprus talks later this year, according to the daily. The Greek Cypriot minister’s remarks came after Turkish warnings last week, with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu saying Ankara will show the “appropriate reaction” if Greek Cyprus moves ahead with its exploration plans.

    He said the Greek Cypriot administration does not have the right to embark on oil and gas exploration in the Mediterranean unless the Cyprus issue is resolved and a government representing the entire island is formed.

    Greek Cyprus has announced that drilling for hydrocarbons off the island’s southern coast will start on Oct. 1. Turkey objects to any Greek Cypriot search for oil and gas inside the island’s 51,000 square-kilometer (17,000 square mile) exclusive economic zone off its southern coast, saying it’s in violation of the rights of Turkish Cypriots, who run their own state in the north of the island.

    Marcoullis claimed Turkey has not realized that it needs to play by the rules if it wants to join the EU, noting that a threat made against one member state is a threat against the entire 27-nation bloc.
    Cyprus was split into a Greek Cypriot south and a Turkish Cypriot north in 1974, when Turkey intervened in response to a coup by supporters of a union with Greece. Greek Cyprus joined the EU in 2004, but only the internationally recognized south enjoys membership benefits. Turkey, a candidate to join the EU, alone recognizes Turkish Cyprus, where it maintains a military presence of 35,000 troops.

    Greek Cyprus earlier licensed American Noble Energy to explore an 800,000-acre area bordering Israeli waters where massive gas fields were found under the seabed.

    TodaysZaman