ISTANBUL — In line with the importance Turkey attaches to the peaceful resolution of conflicts and mediation, the fourth Istanbul Conference on Mediation will convene on Friday themed “Surge in Diplomacy, Action in Mediation”. 

Prevention and peaceful resolution of conflicts is a central feature of Turkey’s foreign policy, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

"Turkey undertakes various efforts in a wide geography from Africa to the Middle East, the Balkans and the Caucasus and has become the most generous nation in the world in terms of per capita humanitarian assistance," he said.

The Istanbul conference on mediation is being held understanding the need to take a comprehensive and holistic approach towards preventing and resolving conflicts and that mediation can be more widely used.

Following UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ “Surge in Diplomacy for Peace” agenda that ascribes a central role to mediation, a key theme of the conference is ways to strengthen the role of mediation in different phases of conflicts.

Another key question is the use of mediation in addressing extremist tendencies, such as racism, xenophobia and animosity against Islam.

The conference will contribute significantly to the activities of the two “Groups of Friends of Mediation” that Turkey set up and co-chairs at the UN and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

The UN group, which has become the leading platform at the UN to promote mediation, now has 53 members, including 48 states and five international organisations. The group also contributed to the 2012 “United Nations Guidance for Effective Mediation”.

In addition to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, the UN Secretary General and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Finland and Switzerland, the other co-chairs at the UN and the OSCE, will address the conference through video messages. The conference will be attended by  more than one hundred experts, diplomats, practitioners and scholars from around the world.