Diyar Güldoğan
April 16, 2016•Update: April 21, 2016
ANKARA
Turkey’s presidential spokesman on Saturday called on nations to maintain unity and solidarity for overcoming current problems.
Following the 13th Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in Istanbul, in his weekly column in the English-language Daily Sabah newspaper, Ibrahim Kalin said the summit focused on "one simple but key" idea.
"There will not be peace and justice without unity and solidarity among nations. To overcome their current malaise and realize their true potential, Muslim nations have to create an agenda of common interest that will serve individual countries as well as the group as a whole," Kalin said.
This is the first time Turkey hosted the two-day summit since the OIC's inception in 1969. Turkey took over the organization’s stewardship from Egypt for the next two years. The summit hoped to increase unity and solidarity between Muslim countries in the fight against terrorism.
Kalin said the OIC also faced the same problem with other international organizations, such as the UN and the EU, in which "each member wishes to see the group as a platform to prioritize its own issues and concerns".
Kalin, an aide to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said even if there are common interests between nations, there are also differences how to define and resolve them.
"It is natural for member states to lobby for their own issues. The key here is to find ways to maximize the interests of individual members while strengthening group solidarity that will in turn help individual countries. It is here that unity and solidarity assume supreme importance," he added.
Kalin said peace and justice are "key" issues for Muslim world and Muslim countries need "better" cooperation and intelligence-sharing among themselves against the "scourge" of terrorism led by Daesh, al-Qaida, Boko Haram, al-Shabaab and the PKK.
"But killing terrorists is not enough. Muslim religious and political leaders have to do more to stop the wave of radicalization that feeds violent extremism. They have to win the hearts and minds of young people before they lose their anchor in the truth," he added.
Calling for a "strong commitment" to unity and solidarity, Kalin said: "Realizing peace and justice first in our souls and then in our communities, nations and regions can help us overcome many of the problems we are facing today."
