The Role of Preventive Diplomacy in the World Community
As the citizens of a peace-loving country, on the 27th of February we received the message about the new adoption of the Resolution "The Role of the United Nations Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia".
Today, under the motto of the year – “Happy Youth with Arkadag Serdar”, the people of Independent, neutral Turkmenistan congratulated our National Leader, our highly esteemed President with the acceptance of a new resolution presented in the 60th session of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly by Turkmenistan. This unforgetable message once more testifies that Turkmenistan implies a constructive position in the international affairs and attaches important relations with the countries that maintain the peaceful, friendly bonds on the principles of diplomatic way.
The National Leader of the Turkmen people, the Chairman of the People's Council of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, spoke from the UN high rostrum with a number of initiatives calling for the prevention of threats that threaten the peace of mankind and ensuring a safely and peaceful life in the world. At the initiative of Turkmenistan, 21 resolutions have been adopted by the UN General Assembly so far. In this regard, all three of them are related to the importance of preventive diplomacy in international relations. Today, the world community recognizes our National Leader as the leader of such humanitarian philosophies as “Peace through Development” and “Dialogue as a Guarantee of Peace” in international relations. According to the resolution, a special place in the document is given to the initiatives of the Regional Center aimed at empowering women and youth, such as the Academy of Preventive Diplomacy for Youth Education and the Women's Dialogue of Central Asia, created in accordance with the UN Global Action Programs "Women, Peace and Security" and “Youth, peace and security”.
What is preventive diplomacy?
The notion of preventive diplomacy implies conflict prevention, which is considered as the perception of intervention and not the escalation of the situation into a greater human tragedy (Georgieva, 2004, p. 11), which could be "one of the most original contributions in the system of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace and international security” (Diplomacy, 1996, p. 1). Preventive diplomacy implies the action of prevention of objections between the parties before their escalation into a conflict with the purpose of limiting their later spread” (Reka, 1994, p. 79). According to the Charter of the United Nations the aim is to maintain the global peace and international security and for this purpose, to take effective collective measures to prevent and avoid threats of peace” ( The United Nations Charter Article 1, 1945).
If we turn to the historical roots of Turkmen neutrality, we can see that the tradition of reconciliation was widely used to prevent disputes, wars and conflicts.
On reading the book ”Turkmenistan - the Heart of the Great Silk Road” by our Hero- Arkadag I remembered the statement of our Arkadag where our National Leader emphasizes that the ability of our ancestors to solve difficult problems peacefully, prevent conflicts and reconcile the conflicting parties takes a worthy place in the foreign policy of our country. It should be noted distinctly that as our national Leader stated in his book “Bitarap Turkmenistan” the Turkmen people have always promoted a peaceful way to solve controversial issues. Because a peaceful way and preventiveness of conflicts are the main pillars of our ancestors. Let’s remember the story “Shukur Bakhshi”, written by Nurmyrat Saryhanov. As it is known, every Turkmen knows the name Shukur Bakhshi, the main hero of the Turkmen music world and he was a skillful musician of the Turkmen people, who left a great mark in the history of the Turkmen music with his wonderful music and his music passed from generation to generation during centuries. In addition, there is one episode, when the brother of Shukur Bakhshi was arrested and all the people of the village gathered to discuss the situation, many proposals were discussed how to take the brother of Shukur out of the prison. People of the village decided to fight and to show their braveness, but Shukur Bakhshi didn’t agree with it and suggested to release his brother with the help of dutar instead of sworn. On reading this episode, everybody can understand and see from the story how the magic music pays a great role in the life of the people and is also a tool for preventing conflicts at all. To say the true, music was also a great step towards the peaceful life of the mankind during that period.
But now, in one word, how much effective Preventive diplomacy has been in the prevention of conflicts, and how much it is today, in the modern time? Preventive Diplomacy as a term in itself has the meaning of prevention of conflicts, internal and external, which means the prevention of conflicts within states, and between states as well. It should be noted that preventive diplomacy today is being developed.
One of the important partners of Turkmenistan in this regard is the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA), established in accordance with the decision of the UN General Assembly with the support of neighboring states and members of the Security Council in 2007. The headquarters of this unique structure is located in Ashgabat.
Turkmenistan is one of the states of Central Asia - a region that today attracts more and more attention of the world community. Here geopolitical and geo-economic interests of many countries of the world are intertwined. Realizing this, Turkmenistan, under the leadership of Hero Arkadag and our esteemed President actively participates in processes aimed at strengthening peace, stability, sustainable development and mutual understanding between the peoples of the region, which is of no small importance for achieving universal peace and progress.
As we know, a number of activities jointly with the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia are being implemented by the future diplomats of the Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, as well as the specialists of the Center for Strategic Studies participate in the activities on preventive diplomacy which are being held jointly with the regional center in these areas as well. It should be noted that the students actively participate in the additional courses on preventive diplomacy which are being held at the training center operating at the Institute in important areas of diplomacy of Turkmenistan. This means that cooperation with preventive diplomacy contributes to the direct improvement of the professional skills of the students in the field of professional training of Turkmen youth.
In conclusion, I would like to say that viewed in terms of international law, as well as the protection of human rights, especially in armed conflicts, the role of preventive diplomacy is crucial and necessary in these circumstances. From elaboration of the notion of Preventive Diplomacy we understand that following the principles of preventive diplomacy, Turkmenistan is always ready to further a positive contribution to the process of achieving peace, stability and sustainable development at the regional and international levels.
Chemen BAYRIEVA,
Senior teacher
of the Department of
World Languages
of the Institute
of International Relations
of the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan