No: 6, 8 January 2016

The Eighth Ambassadors Conference will be held on 10-16 January 2016 under the chairmanship ofH.E. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey, with the participation of Turkey’s Ambassadors serving at home and abroad.

The theme of this year’s Conference is entitled “Crisis Management: Humanitarian Solutions” with a view to setting the stage for the upcoming UN World Humanitarian Summit, which will be hosted by Turkey on 23-24 May 2016. On the occasion of the Eighth Ambassadors Conference, a comprehensive assessment of Turkish Foreign Policy will be carried out while raising awareness both domestically and internationally, prior to the World Humanitarian Summit, for such pressing humanitarian issues as migration and refugees, development and foreign aid, thereby highlighting the efforts that have rendered Turkey a primary and remarkable actor in the field of humanitarian diplomacy in recent years.

The Conference will be inaugurated on 11 January 2016 with the opening remarks of H.E. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Turkish Foreign Policy, following the consecutive visits to the Martyrs Cemetery of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Atatürk’s Mausoleum in the morning. The Ambassadors will exchange views on the prominent issues on Turkey’s current foreign policy agenda. A variety of cross-cutting issues and above all, humanitarian issues that have a bearing on Turkey’s foreign policy will be discussed in the ministerial sessions, which will be honored by Members of the Council of Ministers. In the meantime, the Ambassadors will be received by President H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Grand National Assembly Speaker H.E. İsmail Kahraman and Prime Minister H.E. Ahmet Davutoğlu.

Foreign guests are invited to address the Conference as in the previous years in order to enhance its international dimension. In line with this year’s theme, foreign ministers from several countries as well as participating academicsand experts with worldwide prominence in the field of development and global affairs are expected to address the Ambassadors, and discuss in depth humanitarian issues in panel sessions. Foreign Ministers of Norway, Chile, Kenya, and the United Kingdom, First Vice-President of the EU Commission, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator are among the participating foreign dignitaries.

Similarly, Negotiator Mr. Özdil Nami,a former Foreign Minister of the TRNC, will attend the Cyprus session to make a presentation.

A province outside of Ankara as in the previous years will also be visited. On the last day of the Conference, Foreign Minister H.E. Çavuşoğlu and the Ambassadors will pay a visit to the city of Gaziantep where the impact of the humanitarian crisis is felt most intensely.

The Ambassadors Conference has grown into an annual tradition and is of considerable importance in terms of providing for the evaluation of every aspect of Turkey’s multifaceted foreign policy aimed at making peace and stability prevail in its region, as well as for ensuring more effective coordination.