Welcome to the official website of the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Türkiye to UNESCO and greetings from UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

As one of the founding members of UNESCO, Türkiye has always been committed to the organisation’s mandate and values.Guided by the ideal to establish “intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind” and thereby to prevent the outbreak of another world war, the representatives of 44 countries met in London in November 1945 and accepted the Founding Charter of the UNESCO.Türkiye displayed its strong support to the realization of this endeavour by being among the first twenty states that signed the Charter as a founding member.

Türkiyehas also had a long standing active role in the various bodies of UNESCO.In November 2021, we were re-elected to the Executive Board of UNESCO for the term 2021-2025, following an active membership during the term 2017-2021. This is Türkiye’s eighth term of Executive Board membership.We have also played a role in leadership of the General Conference of UNESCO twice.Prof. Dr. Bedrettin Tuncel served as the President of the 14^th General Conference from 1966-1968 and Ambassador (ret.) Ahmet Altay Cengizer served as the President of the 40^th General Conference from 2019-2021.

We attach utmost importance to our efforts in UNESCO to promote the uniqueness of Türkiye which is home to a diverse cultural heritage. As of 2022, we have 19 World Heritage sites and 21 cultural practices and expressions inscribed to the World Heritage List and the Representative List of Cultural Intangible Heritage of Humanity respectively. We will intensify our efforts to increase this number in the period ahead.

During my tenure, as it has been the case in the past, with the support of our relevant Ministries, we will continue to promote the pioneering role of our country in the fields of education, science, culture and communication, in close collaboration with theTurkish National CommissionforUNESCO, which was founded in 1949 and is one of the oldest National Commissions in UNESCO.

Cities of Türkiyeactively take part in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN), which was created in 2004 to promote cooperation with and among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development. Gaziantep, Hatay, Istanbul, Kütahya, Afyonkarahisar, Kırşehir and Bursa are among the 295 cities which currently make up this network.They work together towards a common objective: placing creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their development plans. Given the prominence of our country as a centre of cultural diversity, increasing the number of Turkish cities in this network is among our priorities.

Based on the importance that our country attaches to education, which is one of the pillars of UNESCO's founding philosophy, Türkiye actively participates in the Organization’s work related to the right to education, opportunity and gender equality in education as well as the impacts of education on sustainable development.As a professor and mentor especially toyoung women in the field of security studies, this is one of the themes of UNESCO that is particularly close to my heart.

The number of UNESCO Chairs at Turkish universities has increased significantly in recent years and reached 16 by 2021 and during my tenure I would like to see the numbers grow further.Within the framework of the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda - Sustainable Development Goals, "Ensure inclusive and equitable education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all", my country contributed to various studies, conducted by UNESCO in the field of education. Considering the positive effects of lifelong learning in the social, environmental and economic fields and the contribution of cities to this end, the Turkish cities Eskişehir, Konya, Hatay, Afyon, Balıkesir and Izmir are members of UNESCO Learning Cities Network.

Apart from all these activities contributing to the enhancement of the field of education and learning, we also attach great importance to our youth that is our future, we actively participate in the activities organized within the framework of UNESCO Youth Programme.

Universal access to information is just as important as equality in education as both complement each other. As a former member of the Intergovernmental Council of the Information for All Programme (IFAP) for the term 2017-2021 and an active current member of the Intergovernmental Council of the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) for the term 2019-2023, Türkiye is committed to promote advocacy to increase universal access to information, as well as to upscale efforts regarding media literacy and media development.

We acknowledge the potential of Artificial Intelligence and Open Science to transform the future of humanity for the better and in favor of sustainable development. For this reason, Türkiye has actively taken part in the negotiation processes of the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science.

The preservation of documentary heritage is also an important part of access to information.There are currently seven documentary heritage from Türkiye registered to the Memory of the World International Register which aims to preserve documentary heritage - the historical, cultural and social memory of the humanity that is in danger of vanishing due to various natural disasters or social upheavals. We continue our efforts to increase this number in the period ahead.

Among the important issue areas concerning UNESCO, climate change as well as related drought and water scarcity have become a problem for all countries. For this reason, our country, which attaches utmost importance to combatting climate change, has ratified the Paris Agreement as a testimony of its sincere determination on this issue.

UNESCO’s expertise in science and technology makes it different from other international organizations. The global challenges stated in the 2030 Agenda, such as “climate change,” “food security”, “access to drinking water and sanitation” and “environmental sustainability” can only be addressed through scientific and innovative policies realized by international collaboration.Our utmost aim is to contribute UNESCO’s effort through active participation of policies and programs.

Türkiye is a current active member of the Intergovernmental Council of the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP) for the term 2021-2025 and Executive Council of Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) for the term 2021-2023.

Sustainable use of natural resources is only possible with the protection of biological and geological diversity. With this understanding, Turkey is a member of UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserves Network with “Camili Biosphere Reserve” and of UNESCO Global Geopark Network with “Kula Volcanic Geopark”.

Istanbul actively takes part in as a member of the “Water and Climate Alliance for Mega Cities-MAWAC” which was established by a group of Megacities, UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP) and its partners in 2015 to draw attention to the significant water, sanitation and climate challenges faced by Megacities.

Türkiye is currently on rank 19 among top contributors to UNESCO. Our country actively supports the inclusive nature of the Organization, especially in terms of equal geographical distribution and gender balance of the staff of the Secretariat.

Together with my colleagues in our Permanent Delegation, I look forward to working with our counterparts in the UNESCO Secretariat, other Permanent Delegations to UNESCO, our National Commission, relevant Ministries and other stakeholders in all the issue areas outlined above that present us formidable challenges, but also offer incredible opportunities to make the World a better place in the 21^stcentury.

Prof. Dr. Gülnur Aybet

Permanent Representative of the Republic of Türkiye to UNESCO