Dr. Akkan Suver, President of the Marmara Group Foundation and Mr. Şamil Ayrım, Istanbul Deputy and Member of the Board of Trustees of the Marmara Group Foundation, participated in the 2nd Summit of World Religious Leaders held on 14-15 November 2019 in Baku.

The 2^nd Summit of World Religious Leaders was attended by nearly 500 international representatives from around 10 international organizations, including 25 presidents of religious affairs and heads of religious sects from more than 70 countries on 5 continents this year.

At the summit, where President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, President of the Caucasus Muslims Administration, Allahşükür Paşazade and President of Religious Affairs Ali Erbaş attended, the discussions were held on the importance of the joint activities of religious leaders, government, science and the public against terrorism, aggression, xenophobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and Christian phobia, in the protection of women's and children's rights and in the education of young people.

At the 2^nd Summit of World Religious Leaders, the 70^th birthday of Shaykh al-Islam Allahşükür Paşazade and the 40^th anniversary of his position as Shaykh al-Islam was celebrated.

President of Marmara Group Foundation Dr. Akkan Suver made a speech about dialogue at the summit of the 2nd Summit of World Religious Leaders in Baku.

President of Marmara Group Foundation Dr. Akkan Suver's text of speech on 14-15 November 2019 at the 2nd Summit of World Religious Leaders in Baku can be found below.
 

First of all, before starting my words, I would like to express my gratitude to our host Honourable Allahşükür Paşazade who brought us together in Baku for the 2nd time and to all the associates.

I was at the first Baku meeting. That day, I focused on the dialogue of cultures and believers. But today, I would like to say a few words about dialogue and the importance of dialogue in bringing people together.

Dialogue is the easiest element that brings people closer together and allows them to get to know each other. While all religions leading us to the same destination, including Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, their methods may be different, but the goals are the same.

We need dialogue to understand and grasp this same goal. Dialogue, as the most important factor that brings languages, religions closer, has been in front of us as a guide for ages.

Although the main source of the wars or crises we live in is considered as an economy, it is nothing but a lack of dialogue. As the deficiency of economy can be explained by dialogue, the hostility of religions to each other can also be eliminated by dialogue.

The geography we live in is a multi-cultural, multi-religious, multi-national and multi-lingual geography. These geographies are actually the cradle of civilization. It is the birthplace of cultures. However, the lack of dialogue and even its absence made this productive geography inefficient.

People become enemies to each other in the name of meaningless values. Although they live side by side, people of this geography refrain from knowing each other. There is no criticism in this geography. As people continue to search for their own future without dialogue in this geography, tensions, murders and wars will continue.

In this environment, dialogue is in front of us as a virtue. You understand me and I understand you as much as we do dialogue. People are killing each other because we could not establish dialogue.

The ongoing wars and the brutality of these wars are due to the lack of dialogue. I think the most important and productive human behavior of the 21st century is dialogue.

If they had bothered to get to know each other, the disagreement between Israel-Palestine, Yemen-Saudi, Serbs-Bosnians and many others would not have come to this day.

From the 1990s to this day where experiences of the past bipolar world was purged, there is a trend towards a bipolar, even tripolar, world. History repeats itself after 27 years. Why is that? It's because of lack of dialogue. Therefore, the growing tension between Russia, the US and the People's Republic of China today is all about the lack of dialogue.

I see dialogue as the most important milestone on the road to peace. If we think that our need is peace and living together, the importance of dialogue will emerge automatically.

Despite all the advancements, because our age is shaped under the rule of inarticulate people, dove of peace cannot approach our environment.

The existence of dialogue will not be felt as long as the clergy and scientists remain alone with their own discourse.

Those who are unaware that we live in a global environment or who ignore it, are not aware of the circumstances we are in.
If we want to live together in humane way, peacefully and with prosperity, we have to gather religions and languages under the umbrella of dialogue.

I would like to congratulate the organizers that arranged this 2nd Baku Meeting for peace and coexistence that we need with the great responsibility of this obligation and pay my respects to your high delegation.