AASSA General Assembly Meeting & International Symposium on “Refugees and Migrants” Will be Held in Türkiye Hosted by TÜBA
TÜBA and The Association of Academies and Societies of Sciences in Asia (AASSA) – with the contributions of the Inter Academy Partnership (IAP) – organize AASSA General Assembly Meeting and the International Symposium on “Refugees and Migrants: A Global Problem or an Asset” on October 20-23, 2016 at the The Green Park Hotel, Ankara.
President of TÜBA, Professor Ahmet Cevat ACAR noted in his statement on this issue that they will host AASSA 2016 General Assembly Meeting and International Symposium on “Refugees and Migrants” which is a global problem as TÜBA. He said that the recent conflicts in the Middle East and other regions of the world have led to an enormous increase in the number of refugees, asylum seekers, displaced persons and migrants. Professor Acar underlines that according to United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the number of international migrants worldwide reached 244 million in 2015 and the attitude and unconcern of the international community and organizations especially against the war & the terror and forces associated to them made the problem “a social catastrophe” and Professor Acar continued his word as According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) there were 59.5 million forcibly displaced people worldwide at the end of 2014, the highest level since World War II. Of these 19.5 million were registered refugees, 1.8 million asylum seekers and 38.2 million internally displaced persons. Syrian refugees are now the largest refugee group overtaking the Afghan refugees and, as of March 2016, Türkiye has become world's biggest refugee hosting country having over 3 million refuges of Syrian and Iraqi origins and has spent about USD 9 billion on assistance to refugees. The figures clearly show that refuges and migrants have become “a global social catastrophe” beyond a global problem.
Although the migrations caused especially by war and terror have come to the fore recently, migration (voluntary or involuntary) is an age-old phenomenon and has different aspects and takes place at different levels. We may speak of cultural, economic, political, climatic, scientific etc. aspects and local, national, regional and global levels. Despite the negative impression we get via the recent conflictual cases, migration and migrants can be regarded as an asset for humanity and they have indeed made significant contributions to human societies. One can only need to remember the contribution of migrant scientists and remittances of migrant workers. In this context, a current problem “migration and migrants” especially for our country and region will be discussed at an international platform in a comprehensive manner in the symposium organized jointly by AASSA & TÜBA and the outcomes will be shared with national and international public opinion. Academics and scientist from many countries will attend AASSA General Assembly Meeting & International Symposium on “Refugees and Migrants” that will be held on 20-23 October. Union of Academies of Sciences of the Turkic World General Assembly Meeting and scientific meeting on “Academic Cooperation in Turkic World” will be held in Türkiye hosted by TÜBA at same dates.
