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Prince Hassan Bin Talal calls for building cultural bridges between Arabs and Turkey

October 28, 2014 at 5:32 pm

Jordan’s Prince Hassan Bin Talal, the uncle of the current monarch Abdullah II, has called for building cultural bridges between the Arabs and Turkey. This request came at the end of his closing speech at the fourth Arab-Turkish Congress for Social Sciences on Monday.

At the end of the conference sponsored by Prince Hassan, he said, “Here in Turkey you have achieved many accomplishments and you have built an intercontinental bridge between our worlds. Will you be able to help us build more cultural bridges?”

Prince Hassan stressed the importance of connecting Turkey with all of its Arab neighbours in the region, including Iran, to build a network of multilateral dialogues across universities and professors. He stressed that critical thinking cannot be achieved unless there are serious reforms across the board.

The Jordanian prince asked for scholars to focus on efficiency and creativity and to support scientific research between the people within the region. He also called on attendees to support the goals of the World Zakat Fund, an institution that he considered to be a cornerstone in the region’s shared religious and cultural values.

Prince Hassan expressed his dismay over the violence that is taking place in the region by saying, “I must say that in this current period, I am not a fan of living this way of life. I ask for everyone to remain faithful to the truth and I would like to continue to believe that hardship cannot prosper when one has good faith”.

The prince went on to say that he was taken aback by images of Israeli forces as they took control of Al-Aqsa and who have shown no respect for the worshippers and citizens of Jerusalem.

“These regional events may not be important to the people sitting in this room right now but they are important to the tormented souls who experience this reality regularly in our region. These people are dying due to the atrocities we willingly commit against one another”.

These comments were made at the fourth annual Arab-Turkish Social Sciences in which hundreds of Arab and Turkish intellectuals came together to share more than 100 conference papers related to education, development issues and other ways in which all parties can benefit from the each other’s experiences.

Education and development professionals from Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Bahrain, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Sudan all participated in the conference.