Uncertainty and Instability: Multiple Crises, a State of Permanent Crisis

Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Participants,

I would like to express my great honor in participating in the 11th Istanbul Security Conference, in which I have been involved since its inception. Furthermore, it is a great honor for me to have been given the task of delivering the keynote address at the opening of the conferences for the past six years.

Welcome to our conference, where you are participating to share your thoughts and ideas. Your participation has given us strength.

The progress made by TASAM under the title of Istanbul Security Conference has truly required intense effort and strong stability in the context of Turkey. Mr. President, you have demonstrated strong leadership in ensuring this stability. I offer my sincere thanks to all those who have contributed to the conference reaching this level and to the organization of the 11th conference.

Organizations and studies on security in Türkiye are not able to have a long lifespan. This situation has many different reasons, primarily financial. However, despite all these difficulties, TASAM has been able to maintain its existence and continue to contribute to our country in its field. TASAM is now a brand, and the Istanbul Security Conference, as a sub-brand of TASAM, has taken its place at the national and international levels. When a history of this conference is prepared a few years from now, it will be seen that it makes a difference in terms of predictability, considering the topics discussed/debated by the participants.

I chose "uncertainty and instability" as the main theme of the conference. "Uncertainty" is a different concept, as you know, and "instability" is even more different. There is tremendous uncertainty in our world right now. Uncertainty is different from risk. You cannot make calculations with uncertainty, but you can make calculations from a risk management perspective. The fundamental problem is the presence of instability along with uncertainty. As the President and the Ambassadors mentioned earlier, this is the kind of world we are facing. Therefore, I tried to express what is happening by bringing these two concepts together and through these two concepts.