The Istanbul World Political Forum (also called World Political Forum and Istanbul Forum) is a non-profit foundation, based in Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

, best known for its annual meeting in Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

. The forum takes place with the participation of statesmen, opinion leaders, bureaucrats and the business elite as well as renowned figures from reputable universities.

History

The foundation was founded in 2011 by Ahmet Eyüp Özgüç, President of Turkish Foundation. Originally started as the Leaders of Change Summit, it transformed its name to the Istanbul World Political Forum in 2011 and sought to broaden its vision further to include providing a platform for resolving international conflicts.

The Leaders of Change summit was held on 13–14 March, 2011 in Istanbul and was hosted by the Turkish Foundation and supported by the Turkish Prime Ministry. The theme was “Changing to meet, meeting to change”, emphasizing the radical changes in policymakers’ thinking now taking place and the importance of sharing new ideas to address the urgent problems facing particularly the Middle East.
The summit was the first of what Turkish Foundation President Ahmet Eyüp Özgüç planned to be an annual forum supported by the Turkish Foundation. Just as the G8 is losing out to a more representative G20 in global economic decision-making, the Turkish organizers intend that such summits provide a more democratic platform for voices of change.

The 2012 Istanbul World Political Forum will be held on May 17-18, 2012, with the theme of "Building a New World".

Participants

The two-day event called the “Leaders of Change Summit” opened March 13, 2011. It consisted of nearly 100 speakers:

• Vedat Akgiray, Chairman of the Capital Markets Board of Turkey
• Sayyed Ammar Alhakim
  Ammar al-Hakim
  Sayyed Ammar al-Hakim is an Iraqi politician who leads the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, which was the largest party in Iraq's Council of Representatives from the 2003 Invasion of Iraq until the 2010 Iraqi elections....
  
  , President of Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq
• Tariq al-Hashimi
  Tariq Al-Hashimi
  Tariq al-Hashimi is an Iraqi politician and was general secretary of the Iraqi Islamic Party until May 2009. Along with Adil Abdul Mahdi, he is a Vice President of Iraq in the government formed after the December 2005 elections...
  
  , Vice President of Iraq
• Abdulkadir Aksu
  Abdülkadir Aksu
  Abdülkadir Aksu , is a Turkish politician from Diyarbakır. He is married and has 2 children.-Ethnic Origin:According to some sources, he is Kurdish ; according to Üzeyir Tekin, he is of partial Albanian and Kurdish origin; and according to Hasan Celal Güzel, a friend of Aksu family, he is of...
  
  , Vice President of Justice and Development Party
• Metropolit Alexander
  Russian Orthodox Church
  The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
  
  , Russian Orthodox Church, the Metropolit of Astana and Kyrgyzstan
• Kofi Annan
  Kofi Annan
  Kofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...
  
  , 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations
• Ömer Aras, Finansbank Group CEO
• Prof. Deniz Ülke Arıboğan, Istanbul Bilgi University Member of Board of Trustee
• Bülent Arınç
  Bülent Arinç
  Bülent Arınç , is a Turkish politician. He served as the 22nd house speaker of the Parliament of Turkey from 2002 to 2007. He is one of the State Ministers of Turkey and Vice-Prime Minister today.-Life and education:...
  
  , State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey
• Mykola Azarov
  Mykola Azarov
  Mykola Yanovych Azarov ; born Nikolai Yanovich Pakhlo on 17 December 1947, is a Ukrainian politician who has been the Prime Minister of Ukraine since 11 March 2010. He was the First Vice Prime Minister and Finance Minister from 2002 to 2005 and again from 2006 to 2007, and he also served as acting...
  
  , Prime Minister of Ukraine
• Sheik Dr. Muhammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, Kuwait Deputiy Of Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Ali Babacan
  Ali Babacan
  Ali Babacan is a Turkish politician and the current Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey responsible for the Economy. He was previously Minister of Economy in the 58th cabinet from the Justice and Development Party . On August 29, 2007, he was named Minister of Foreign Affairs of in the cabinet of...
  
  , Minister of State and Deputy Prime Minister of Republic of Turkey
• Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
  Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
  Tun Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi is a Malaysian politician who served as Prime Minister from 2003 to 2009. He was also the President of the United Malays National Organisation , the largest political party in Malaysia, and led the governing Barisan Nasional parliamentary coalition...
  
  , 5th Prime Minister of Malaysia
• Egemen Bağış
  Egemen Bagis
  Egemen Bağış is a Turkish politician, member of Turkish parliament since November 2002, current minister for EU Affairs and chief negotiator of Turkey in accession talks with the European Union...
  
  , Minister of EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator of the Republic of Turkey
• Zvi Bar'el, Author-Journalist
• Prof. Ali Bardakoğlu
  Ali Bardakoglu
  Ali Bardakoğlu is the former president of Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı and as such the highest Islamic authority in Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.-Background:...
  
  , Former President of Religious Affairs of Republic of Turkey
• Bartholomew I, Patriarch of the Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul
• Deniz Bayramoğlu, Journalist / Writer
• Tevfik Bilgin, Chairman of BRSA (Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency)
• Prof. Nick Bostrom
  Nick Bostrom
  Nick Bostrom is a Swedish philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk and the anthropic principle. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics...
  
  , Oxford University Director of Future of Humanity Institute
• Pier Luigi Celata, Secretary General of the Council of Inter-religions in Vatican
• Ahmed Najib Chebbi
  Ahmed Najib Chebbi
  Ahmed Najib Chebbi or simply Najib Chebbi is a Tunisian attorney and politician.Chebbi is a prominent figure of the Tunisian opposition movement; in 1983, he founded the Democratic Progressive Party, which gained legal recognition in 1988. He is currently the leader of the Democratic Progressive...
  
  , Tunusia Minister of Development, President of Democratic Party
• Helen Clark
  Helen Clark
  Helen Elizabeth Clark, ONZ is a New Zealand political figure who was the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand for three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008...
  
  , Administrator of UNDP
• Prof. Paul Collier
  Paul Collier
  Paul Collier, CBE is a Professor of Economics, Director for the Centre for the Study of African Economies at The University of Oxford and Fellow of St Antony's College. From 1998 – 2003 he was the director of the Development Research Group of the World Bank.-Life:Collier is a specialist in...
  
  , Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford Economics Department
• Wendy Chamberlin
  Wendy Chamberlin
  Wendy Chamberlin is a veteran diplomat who has served in the United States Department of State and USAID, worked for the UN High Commissioner on Refugees , and now serves as President of the Middle East Institute.- US Department of State :...
  
  , President of Washington Middle East Institute
• Eric Cornut, Head Novartis Pharma Region Europe
• Cengiz Çandar
  Cengiz Çandar
  Cengiz Çandar is a Turkish journalist and a former war correspondent.-Early life:He finished the secondary school at Talas American College in Talas, Kayseri and the high school at Tarsus American College in Tarsus, Mersin...
  
  , Coloumnist in Radikal Newspaper
• Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu
  Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu
  Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu is the current president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. He also represents Antalya Province in the Turkish Grand National Assembly...
  
  , President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
• Gökhan Çetinsaya, President of Istanbul Şehir University
• Ahmet Davutoğlu
  Ahmet Davutoglu
  Professor Ahmet Davutoğlu is a Turkish political scientist, an academic and an ambassador. On May 1, 2009, he was named Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey after being the chief advisor to the Prime Minister of Republic of Turkey.-Life and career:...
  
  , Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Kemal Derviş
  Kemal Dervis
  Kemal Derviş is a Turkish economist and politician, and former head of the United Nations Development Programme. He was honored by the government of Japan for having "contributed to mainstreaming Japan's development assistance policy through the United Nations." In 2005, he was ranked 67th in the...
  
  , Director of the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brooking Institution
• Ekrem Dumanlı, Zaman Newspaper Executive Editor
• Prof. William Eimicke, Founding Director of School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
• Şükrü Elekdağ
  Şükrü Elekdağ
  Mustafa Şükrü Elekdağ is a Turkish diplomat, academician and politician.He served as the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ambassador of Turkey to Japan and to the United States . He was also the Member of Parliament from the Republican People's Party.He was one of the...
  
  , Ambassador, Member of the Parliament
• Prof. John Ellis
  John Ellis
  -Politics:* Sir John Ellis, 1st Baronet , British Member of Parliament for Mid Surrey 1884–1885, Kingston 1885–1892* John Ellis , Irish Fianna Fáil politician...
  
  , Cern
• Ekrem Erdem, AKP (Justice and Development Party) Deputy Chairman
• Zeynel Abidin Erdem
  Zeynel Abidin Erdem
  Dr. Zeynel Abidin Erdem is a Turkish business tycoon and the honorary consul of the Kingdom of Spain to the Marmara Region of Turkey and the honorary consul of the Republic of Sudan to the Republic of Turkey. He was born on the 15th of February 1944 in Savur, Mardin, Turkey...
  
  , Erdem Holding Chairman of the Board of Directors
• Recep Tayyip Erdogan
  Recep Tayyip Erdogan
  Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been Prime Minister of Turkey since 2003 and is chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party , which holds a majority of the seats in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Erdoğan served as Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. He graduated in 1981 from Marmara...
  
  , Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey
• Hüseyin Erkan
  Hüseyin Erkan
  Hüseyin Erkan is a Turkish high-ranking civil servant for finance and is currently the CEO of the Istanbul Stock Exchange ....
  
  , Chairman of Istanbul Stock Exchange
• Vincente Fox, 35th President of Mexico and Member of the Club of Madrid
• Aart de Geus
  Aart de Geus
  Aart J. de Geus is the founder, chairman and CEO of Synopsys Inc. He is a fellow of IEEE and Phil Kaufman Award award winner. Aart graduated with a masters degree in Electrical Engineering from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne , EPFL, Switzerland followed by a Ph.D...
  
  , Deputy-Secretary-General of OECD
• Prof. Jay Goodman, Professor of Political Science at Wheaton College
• Al Gore
  Al Gore
  Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
  
  , 45th Vice President of the United States of America
• Zeynep Göğüş, Journalist - Writer
• Prof. Mehmet Görmez, President of Religious Affairs of Republic of Turkey

• Isak Haleva, Chief Rabbi of Turkish Jewish Community
• Oğuz Haksever, Journalist
• Bakir Izetbegović
  Bakir Izetbegovic
  Bakir Izetbegović is a Bosniak politician. Izetbegović is a member of the Party of Democratic Action and son of the late Bosnian president, Alija Izetbegović. In 2010, he was elected to be the Bosniak member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.-Career:Izetbegović graduated with a degree in...
  
  , President of Bosnia Herzegovina
• Lionel Jospin
  Lionel Jospin
  Lionel Jospin is a French politician, who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002.Jospin was the Socialist Party candidate for President of France in the elections of 1995 and 2002. He was narrowly defeated in the final runoff election by Jacques Chirac in 1995...
  
  , 165th Prime Minister of France and Member of the Club of Madrid
• Ibrahim Kalin, Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister of Republic of Turkey
• Stephen Kinzer
  Stephen Kinzer
  Stephen Kinzer is a United States author and newspaper reporter. He is a veteran New York Times correspondent who has reported from more than fifty countries on five continents. During the 1980s he covered revolution and social upheaval in Central America...
  
  , Journalist and Author
• Metin Kilci, Undersecuretary of Republic of Turkey Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources
• Wim Kok
  Wim Kok
  Willem "Wim" Kok ; born September 29, 1938) is a retired Dutch politician of the Labour Party . He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from August 22, 1994 until July 22, 2002....
  
  , Former Prime Minister of Netherlands and Member of the Club of Madrid
• Temel Kotil
  Temel Kotil
  Temel Kotil is an aeronautical engineer and serves as the president and CEO of the Turkish Airlines since April 2005....
  
  , Turkish Airlines CEO
• Ludger Kühnhardt
  Ludger Kühnhardt
  Ludger Kühnhardt is a German political scientist. Since 1997 he has been Director at the Center for European Integration Studies , which he helped to found, and Professor of Political Science at Bonn University.-Education:...
  
  , Director of the Center for European Integration Studies
• Prof. Ali Mazrui
  Ali Mazrui
  Ali Al'amin Mazrui is an academic and political writer on African and Islamic studies and North-South relations. He is an Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities and the Director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York.-Education:Mazrui...
  
  , Professor at The State University of New York at Binghampton
• Murat Mercan, President of Turkish Parliamentary Foreign Relations Commission
• Hossein Nasr, Professor of Islamic studies at the George Washington University
• Ahmet Eyüp Özgüç, Board of Directors of TÜGAV
• Ömer Özkaya, Editor in chef of East West Researches Institute
• Hegumen Philip, Russian Orthodox Church Hegumen
• Prof. Tariq Ramadan
  Tariq Ramadan
  Tariq Ramadan is a Swiss academic, poet and writer. He is also a Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Oxford University...
  
  , Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford
• Rahip Gregory Roschin, Russian Orthodox Church
• Prof. Mehdi Roustami, Iran Oil University Faculty Member
• Lucian Sarb, Euronews Director of News and Programmes
• Ali Saydam, Bersay CEO
• Rabbi Arthur Schneier, President and Founder of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation
• Yavuz Semerci, Journalist and Writer
• Prof. Yunus Söylet, President of Istanbul University
• Lord Nicholas Stern, Professor at London School of Economics
• Ümit Sezgin, Editorial Director of TRT TURK
• Ferit Faik Şahenk, Chairman of Doğuş Holding
• Idris Naim Şahin
  İdris Naim Şahin
  İdris Naim Sahin is a Turkish politician who was elected to the Turkish Grand National Assembly in 2002, representing Istanbul....
  
  , Member of Turkish Parliament
• Özay Şendir, Journalist and Writer
• Sani Şener
  Sani Şener
  Dr. Engineer Mustafa Sani Şener is a Turkish construction magnate. He is co-founder and chief executive officer of TAV Airports Holding and TAV Construction.-Early Years:...
  
  , TAV CEO
• Mehmet Şimşek
  Mehmet Simsek
  Mehmet Şimşek was born 1 January 1967, from a Turkish family of Kurdish descent in the city of Batman, Turkey.He is the Minister of Finance of Turkey in the cabinet of re-elected Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He was elected to the Parliament for Gaziantep in the general election on July 22,...
  
  , Republic of Turkey Finance Minister
• Hashim Thaçi
  Hashim Thaci
  Hashim Thaçi is the Prime Minister of Republic of Kosovo, the leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo , and former political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army .-Early life and education:...
  
  , Prime Minister of Kosovo
• Prof. Vito Tanzi, Economist and Writer
• Gönül Tol, Director for The Center Turkish studies at the Washington Middle East Institute
• Kadir Topbaş
  Kadir Topbas
  Kadir Topbaş is a Turkish architect, right-wing regional politician and the current mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality in Turkey.-Biography:...
  
  , Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality
• Hadi Ulengin, Journalist Writer
• Levent Veziroğlu, Executive Vice President, Doguş Group Office of the Chairman
• Rüdiger Voss, CERN Senior Physicist
• Eric Walberg, Journalist
• Ross Wilson
  Ross Wilson
  Ross Andrew Wilson is an Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer who fronted the groups Daddy Cool and Mondo Rock, and produced albums by Australian band Skyhooks. He has also performed solo, and as a judge on celebrity singing TV series It Takes Two from 2005...
  
  , Atlantic Council Dinu Patriciu Director of Euroasia
• Hayati Yazıcı
  Hayati Yazici
  Hayati Yazıcı is a Turkish lawyer and politician. He is currently one of Turkey's Minister of State.Hayati Yazıcı graduated 1975 from the School of Law at Istanbul University and served as judge in several towns...
  
  , Minister of State and Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey
• Binali Yıldırım
  Binali Yildirim
  Binali Yıldırım is the current Minister of Transport of Turkey and a MP for Istanbul of the ruling Justice and Development Party.He was educated the Istanbul Technical University's School of Maritime...
  
  , Republic of Turkey Minister of Transport and Communications
• Taner Yıldız
  Taner Yıldız
  Taner Yıldız is a Turkish politician. He is a member of the Justice and Development Party and the Energy and Natural Resources Minister of Turkey....
  
  , Republic of Turkey Minister of Energy and Natural Resources
• Durmuş Yılmaz
  Durmus Yilmaz
  Durmuş Yılmaz is a Turkish economist and was the Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey between 2006 and 2011.-Biography:...
  
  , Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey
• Ulrich Zachau, Country Director for Turkey Europe and Central Asia Region of the World Bank

See also

• anti-globalization movement
  Anti-globalization movement
  The anti-globalization movement, or counter-globalisation movement, is critical of the globalization of corporate capitalism. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalist movement, anti-corporate globalization movement, or...
  
  
• globalization
  Globalization
  Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
  
  
• world economy
  World economy
  The world economy, or global economy, generally refers to the economy, which is based on economies of all of the world's countries, national economies. Also global economy can be seen as the economy of global society and national economies – as economies of local societies, making the global one....
  
  

• World Economic Forum
  World Economic Forum
  The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....
  
  
• Horasis
  Horasis
  Horasis is an independent think tank based in Zurich, Switzerland, which was established in 2005 by Frank-Jürgen Richter, its Chairman. Its stated mission is to "enact visions for a sustainable future" through new platforms for cooperation and knowledge-sharing, particularly between developed...
  
   The Global Visions Community
• World Knowledge Forum
  World Knowledge Forum
  The World Knowledge Forum is a fete of knowledge, the biggest in Asia. It is also known as Asia's Davos Forum . Established in October 2000, the World Knowledge Forum gathers more than 100 business and opinion leaders from around the world ranging from environmental and international organizations...
  
  
• World Social Forum
  World Social Forum
  The World Social Forum is an annual meeting of civil society organizations, first held in Brazil, which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemonic globalization...
  
  
• Public Eye Awards
  Public Eye Awards
  The Public Eye, held every year since 2000, is a counter-event to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. The Public Eye celebrated its ten-year anniversary on 28 January 2009....
  
  

External links

• istanbulwpf.org, Istanbul World Political Forum's official website