NATO - Ad Hoc Working Group On Small Arms And Light Weapons (Salw) And Mıne Action
EAPC IN POLITICAL COMMITTEE SESSION
AD HOC WORKING GROUP ON SMALL ARMS AND LIGHT WEAPONS (SALW)
AND MINE ACTION
Meeting to be held at NATO Headquarters, 1110 Brussels,
on Friday, 14 March 2008 at 10 a.m.
Nazire Dedeman
Founder President of Umut Foundation
Speech Text
Ladies and Gentlemen,
First of all, I would like to mention that I am very happy to be here with you.
I thank Mr. Miggins for giving me the opportunity to inform you of our activities on individual disarmament in Turkey and to present the cultural and social reasons for individual armament.
Before Mr. Fikret Ilkizs presentation about this extremely important subject, please let me introduce the purpose and vision of our foundation, as the Founder and President of the Umut Foundation.
The Umut Foundation was established in 1993 to keep alive the of our 4 children Berna (which means youngster), Umut (which means hope), Onur (which means honor) and Önder (which means leader) whom we lost, and share these memories with future generations. These 4 names, who are our children and grandchildren, symbolize the name and purpose of the foundation at the same time.
Umut Foundation aim is:
To empower our youth, who are the safeguard of the future, with qualities and skills fit for leadership which enable them to follow the path of Atatürks teachings, thus assisting them to take part in the development of our country and to be benefical to humankind; to help them internalize the supremacy of law and contribute to the application of it; to encourage them to favor peaceful means in resolving conflicts, following the dictum Peace at Home, Peace in the World set by our leader Atatürk; and in this context to teach them skills of peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding.
As you know, the symbol of piece is the pigeon. Why is the logo of a foundation, of which peace is the main principle, a gull? It is because establishing peace is not the only target of our foundation. Peace is a limited concept, stressing reaching peace. However, our foundations target, besides reaching peace, is to ensure peace is permanent and most importantly, to ensure development of peace and raise leaders for this purpose.
Young people found that the symbol of our desire is the gull, because, according to them, the gull is the symbol of the purity of white, innocence and optimism, as well as yearning for being reconciled with our own and nature.
And here the logo of our foundation is four gulls that control the infinity of rise. Gulls stand for what our children and the community in general expect from us. Our effort is to spread such expectations to all young people and make them adopt; and let them be the hope of the world
In the direction towards our target, as the Umut Foundation, we have been holding many national and international academic studies, conferences, education seminars and campaigns and publishing books for more than 15 years on subjects, including the superiority of law, the culture of peace, justice, awareness of being a citizen and individual disarmament. Our website which we update every week is our periodical. www.umut.org.tr, is today used as a serious reference source by journalists, academicians and citizens.
While ending my speech here, I am honored to present you Mr. Fikret Ilkiz, Trustee and Member of Board of Directors of Umut Foundation.
I salute you with respect.
For tomorrows full of hope