Conversation on the banks of the Bosphorus

Political fever

In the midday in Turkey the temperature reaches 34 degrees centigrade. But not only the temperature of the air was rising, the atmosphere on the square behind one of the most famous mosques in the Turkish capital - Bayazit - was becoming more and more tense. Last Friday, a sacred day for all Muslims, a protest against the Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla, which resulted in the death of 19 civilians, including citizens of Turkey, was organized here. A huge crowd chanted "Israel is a murderer".

The incident in the Mediterranean Sea once again showed the fragility of peace in the region. The conflict can only be solved by talks. This is the main aim of the international organization, established on the initiative of Kazakhstan - the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia (CICA).

On Tuesday, the third session of the CICA began in Istanbul. This year, the forum will be attended by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Russian Premier Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev and other top-officials.

It is not for nothing that Turkey has become the first successor of the Kazakh initiative. This country is bridge between the European continent and Asia and shares the interests of both sides. Moreover, as was mentioned before, the pain of the losses in the "Flotilla massacre" is still strong here. Thus Turkey supports the main ideas of the CICA.

In 1992, when Nazarbaev proposed the idea of such organization in Asia at the UN General Session, it was skeptically received by the international community. Unlike other regions there was no such international structure in Asia. But 18 years later, the CICA has become an analogue of the OSCE on the Asian continent.

The incident in the Mediterranean Sea was also a top issue of a news conference held two days before the summit in Istanbul."We have sent an invitation to Israel, as a CICA member state, but still haven't received confirmation of their participation," said the Iranian foreign minister's aide Unal Chevikoz. Later it was announced that the Israeli ambassador to Turkey will represent his country.

Forum as a stage for European-Asian dialogue.

On Monday, on the eve of the summit, under Kazakh guidance, the OSCE hosted a special event within the framework of the OSCE "Security and Economic cooperation in Eurasia of the XXI century", organized for the OSCE Asian partners (Australia, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Republic of Korea, Thailand and Japan). At the opening ceremony, the OSCE chairman, state secretary and Kazakh foreign minister Kanat Saudbeev pointed out that there is no such conception as European security, since it spreads beyond European borders to Eurasia. Thus Kazakhstan proposed an initiative to establish a joint OSCE-CICA forum. He hoped that this would begin a new era of pan-Eurasian cooperation.

Kulpash Kanirova, Istanbul. Exclusively for VK.