TRT World forum kicks off with focus on pressing global issues

Political leaders, analysts and decision makers on Wednesday gathered in Istanbul for the first annual TRT World Forum. 

Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildrim inaugurated the event aimed at highlighting the most pressing issues the world faces today with a particular focus on humanitarian crisis. 

The goal of Turkey’s first English-language news network, TRT World, is to give a voice to oppressed people, Ibrahim Eren, Director-General of TRT said.

TRT World forum is hosting a total of 400 guests, including scholars, academicians, politicians, journalists, NGO representatives and members of civil society - at the forum.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be among those to address the event.

TRT World's Shamim Chowdhury reports from Istanbul. 

Speaking at the two-day event, Prime Minister Binali Yildrim,  “Increasing racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and other discrimination in our age are marginalising people and making societies more divided and fragile”.

Yildirim added that terrorism was the enemy of humanity and should be condemned without hesitation and fought through global cooperation.

Presidential spokesman, Ibrahım Kalin, said:  “We are the very beginning of a new process where the current global order is being questioned seriously."

"You hear voices coming from the non-western world, from China, India, Africa, Turkey, Latin America, which make up 90 per cent of the world. That’s why our president has been calling for a reform of the security council,” he added.