Expressing his worries about the year 2015 when more and more discussions will be held on Armenian issue, Cengizer said “The more we learn about our history, the better we can support our country in 2015. Turkey has never carried out genocide.”
Anatolian Festival in Costa Mesa California was one of such Turkish Cultural diplomacy propaganda programs that Turkish government spent millions of dollars to deny Armenian Genocide.
Unfortunately some naive Armenian individuals have participated in Turkish Cultural diplomacy propaganda.
Here is the the rest of the TURKSOY Cultural diplomacy:
Panel discussion titled “Cultural diplomacy and new initiatives in international relations” was held at International Organization of Turkic Culture (TURKSOY) in cooperation with Eurasia Economic Relations Association (EkoAvrasya) and Ankara Political and Economic Studies Center (ASEM) on Wednesday.
Deputy Secretary General of TURKSOY Firat Purtas pointed out the organization conducts many cultural activities in a number of countries and added TURKSOY was exactly an organization of cultural diplomacy.
“Cultural diplomacy helps countries express themselves more clearly and understand the others better,” said Purtas adding “That is how they establish confidence and the interaction starts between countries.”
Altay Cengizer, Director General for Overseas Promotion and Cultural Affairs at the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Turkey needed to carry out more activities of cultural diplomacy in order to prevent the misunderstandings on Turkey. Cengizer, on the other hand, stated most of the European countries did not really need to focus on cultural diplomacy as they could easily attract the attention to their country by easily producing a film or a book.
Expressing his worries about the year 2015 when more and more discussions will be held on Armenian issue, Cengizer said “The more we learn about our history, the better we can support our country in 2015. Turkey has never carried out genocide.”
Speaking at the panel discussion, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports Yusuf Tekin said sport and sport diplomacy had been voiced more often in all the international meetings across the world.
Tekin said, “It may be ‘sport’ which is the most important soft power that we are not aware of” reminding the number of players and participants in 2012 London Summer Olympics.
Mentioning about the transfers in English and Spanish football leagues, Tekin said most of the countries around the world made use of football in order to improve their diplomatic relations with other countries.
Tekin ended his speech saying “All the countries in the world carry out lobbying activities with the aim of being the host country in international sport organizations. Turkey has also comprehended the role of sport in diplomatic relations.”