TRT World to host World Citizen Awards

By Merve Yildizalp

ANKARA

Turkey’s state broadcaster TRT World will host the World Citizen Awards in Istanbul on Oct. 3

The awards recognize individuals from around the world who have been "engaged in groundbreaking and remarkable work in service to humanity", a Wednesday statement from TRT World said.

The event will take the form of a gala dinner at the Raffles Hotel in the Zorlu Center, with attendees from around the world in the fields of politics, academia, arts and entertainment, humanitarian aid, and business.

Four awards will be conferred in the categories of Education, Communication, Lifetime Achievement and a special Citizen of the Year honor:

The director general of TRT, Ibrahim Eren, will open the night with a presentation on the work of TRT World Citizen during the last year. This will be followed by a key speech by Turkey’s First Lady Emine Erdogan.

On the same day will begin the TRT World Forum, which will gather hundreds of politicians, academics, journalists and businesspeople on Oct. 3-4 in Istanbul.

The forum, of which the theme will be "Envisioning Peace and Security in a Fragmented World", aims to "discuss and provide solutions for the most pressing global issues of our time with the aim of working towards global peace and prosperity".

Anadolu Agency is the global communication partner of the event.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to make a speech titled "In Pursuit of Justice in a Fragmented World" at the closing ceremony.

Rania al-Abdullah, the queen of Jordan, will also be in attendance, according to the TRT statement.

Other participants include former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, former Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, the ex-deputy prime minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim, the UN secretary general’s special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, and former World Bank Managing Director Mamphela Ramphele.

The forum, to be inaugurated by Ibrahim Eren, the TRT director-general, will feature four public sessions: A World in or Out of Order?, A Hundred Years Since WWI, The EU and its Discontents, The Rise of the Global South and The Leadership of Women in the World of Conflict.

On the second day of the event, Malaysia’s Ibrahim will deliver a keynote speech.

The forum “will produce concrete solutions to the recent humanitarian issues” with the participants’ opinions and the Turkish approach, Ibrahim Eren stated.