Summary of the
DOWNFALL OF DEMOCRACY – COVID-19 & Natural Disasters: VISIONS TOWARD SOLUTIONS titled webinar, which was presented on September 12, 2021. 

Summary by Ali Alp Gürer & The Light Millennium

This webinar organized in support of the International Day of Democracy (September 15); SDG-16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions &SDG-17: Partnerships for the Goals

Co-organized and presented by Assembly of Turkish American Associations and The Light Millennium, Charitable Global Human Advancement Organization, associated with the United Nations Department of Global Communications; and Turkish Anti-Defamation Alliance

Sponsoring Mission: Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the United Nations

Contributing Organizations: Azerbaijan Society of America & Peace Caucus

BOOKLET | CONCEPT NOTE

The webinar started with a piano performance by Tiraje Guneyman Ruckman

Chopin Nocturne in c sharp minör, No. 20, op. Posthumous. 

The Moderator of the webinar, Bircan Ünver presented the following quotes by the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres based on the 2021 International Day of Democracy message to set the tone for the webinar which follows: 

“As the world confronts COVID-19, democracy is crucial in ensuring the free flow of information, participation in decisionmaking and accountability for the response to the pandemic.”

 “At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, every crisis poses a threat to democracy, because the rights of the people, in particular those most vulnerable, are all too quickly ignored. For this reason, the protection of rights in times of crisis is a key element of my Call to Action for Human Rights.

On this International Day of Democracy, as we look beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, let us commit to a future in which we recognize human rights and the rule of law as fundamental to democracy. Let us commit to safeguarding the principles of equality, participation, and solidarity so that we can better weather the storm of future crises.”

Quotes based on the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’s
message on the 2021 International Day of Democracy

ATAA president Mazlum Koşma’s opening talks emphasize the deteriorating trend towards democracy and democratic practices all around the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, and other crises along with the introduction of ATAA to the speakers and the attendees.

European Commissioner Ms. Jutta Urpilainen‘s brief video message on the International Day of Democracy was screened. 

Follow by the moderator’s brief introduction of the Honorary Speaker of the session, H.E. Rodrigo A. Carazo, Costa Rica’s Ambassador at the United Nations and Vice-president of the Board of UNICEF, Ms. Ünver posed the following first question. 

 – Could you please elaborate on Costa Rica’s (1821) 200 years of history on democracy and the “singular value on peace and harmony” concept? 

 H.E. Carazo has covered Costa Rica`s exemplary efforts to adopt and promote social democracy since its formation in 1821 on its 200 long-history and commitment, where rule of law is upheld, free public education, and health is provided. In particular, it has been decided in 1948 after Costa Rican Civil War to dismount its army and made it constitutional to further promote democracy. The “singular value on peace and harmony” concept is grounded both in the country’s founding principle and specifically once Costa Rica has decided a non-weaponry country except defense situations that no child, son, wife, daughter, and grand-children will be lost in a war, in which, H.E. Carazo has underlined. 

The second–with three-fold–questions posed followed by which follow:

 What do you consider the highest accomplishment of Costa Rica in its 200 years of history?

 And, what are the projected major challenges and opportunities ahead of Costa Rica during the next 30 years? 

 In this line, what will be the single-major goal to be accomplished by 2050?

H.E. Carazo provided facts and figures about Costa Rica’s success story on reversing deforestation, doubling it, environmental sustainability, allocating 25 percent of land for bio-diversity, and with an ultimate goal of attaining the SDGs by 2030, and Zero-Carbon Vision of the country by 2050. 

VIDEO

Mr. Uğur Kara, President of Turkish Anti-Defamation Alliance (TADA) and one of the three core organizers of the webinar, briefly introduced his organization and the Keynote Speaker of the session of Mr. Bruce Fein.

Following, the Keynote speaker, Mr. Bruce Fein, Attorney at Law, Author and Legal Advisor of Turkish Anti-Defamation Alliance, started his speech with a strong claim that challenge to democracy is not unique to Covid as our DNA is inclined towards the hierarchical organization and “species likes to have a father figure”. However, he warns that democracy is not majority rules. On the contrary, it is a culture that entails “tolerance, wisdom, understanding, liberty”. He highlights the general architecture of American Democracy to achieve this culture as Separation of Power that ambition counteracts ambition, which has been under attack in recent years. He urges that those attacks became more visible with COVID-19, but they existed before it and will certainly still be causing major problems after it. He asserts as a final note that “Democracy is not an endpoint, it is a process, spirit by which you live, and you discharge your obligations as citizens”.
Mr. Fein has authored the following two titled books: “Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy” and “American Empire Before The Fall”.

Based on these two books, Mr. Fein laid out the fundamental pillars of keeping up and protecting the U.S. Constitution and democracy along with whereas the U.S. has been facing troubles in our times.

Follow by Mr. Fein presentation, the following two questions were posed by the moderator:

What cultural attributes are necessary for democracy to flourish?

Why is the natural tendency of all political cultures towards monarchical-executive rule?

As a Constitutional attorney and author of two books on the U.S. Constitutions, Mr. Fine argued that Covid-19 is one of the minor impacts on the “Downfall of Democracy” that “whenever and wherever a war or any forms of war is launched, that is the ‘death nail’ of democracy.” 

Further, Mr. Fein referred that September 17, a few days away from today (September 12) is the anniversary of the Constitution, even we don’t commemorate it because it has not been upheld. 

Ms. Pauline Cantwell, Peace Caucus, as one of the two contributing organizations, Ms. Cantwell briefly introduced Mr. Dane Wigington, GeoengineeringWatch.Org.

Mr. Dane Wigington has focused on his speech at the webinar, in particular, in connection with the natural and/or manmade disasters’ negative impacts on the environment along with basic rights and democracy. Mr. Wigington has focused from a Geoengineering perspective, more specifically, on climate modification and control operations. VIDEO

Mr. Wigington warns everybody even academia in climate science that geoengineering is lethal, catastrophic ongoing reality. He says that those climate-controlling experiments are currently being done without informing the public or getting consent, which can be labeled as undemocratic. The main material used in climate control is aluminum particulates dispersed over the atmosphere to reflect sunlight. He notes that those particulates sediment and become toxic on oceans. Moreover, any geoengineering project currently being funded provides only short-term/temporary benefits to mask real issues such as methane release in the Arctic. That`s why he urges us to first and foremost acknowledge detrimental geoengineering operations and force discussions about them. In his presentation, Mr. Wigington referred to his scientific and research-based “Dimming the Sun” documentary and stated that this is an ongoing operation over 70 years as a global collaborative effort with most of the heads of governments in the World, and quoted by Lyndon Johnson, 36th President of the United States, “If we control the weather, we control the World”, with an indication that it is recorded history. In this context, Mr. Wigington with some scientific references stated that the recent vast amount of wild-forest fires in the World were man-made as a part of the “dimming sun” operations, which is a temporary solution to stop melting the Arctic. However, Mr. Wigington alerts us that it is already done great damage and will have far more lethal consequences. 

Based on Mr. Wigington’s presentation, the moderator posed the following question: 

How can the melting arctic and global warming can stop that there won’t be a need for “Dimming the Sun”?

His response was received with a surprise as follow: If nothing is done and can be stopped modifying and controlling of climate, consequently, the nature will cure itself. He strongly emphasized that history is on our side but we need to mobilize a mass majority of the human population urgently. Otherwise, it may be too late.

Ms. Tomris Azeri, President, Azerbaijan Society of America, briefly introduced her organization as the very first Azerbaijani Civil Society in the U.S., which was formed in 1958. Ms. Azeri has introduced Dr. Fariz Ismailzade, Executive Vice-Rector, Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy (ADA along with his contribution to the Azerbaijan Society of America, in particular, while Dr. Ismailzade were studying in the U.S. 

Although Dr. Ismailzade is based in Azerbaijan, due to his current trip to New York, he joined in the session-based in New York.

Dr. Fariz Ismailzade shared his experience with challenges for democracy in Azerbaijan. In particular, Dr. Ismailzade has brought up Azerbaijan as being a young democracy yet at 30 years old, he emphasized ongoing challenges in his country and the region. He asserts that the citizens have not been fully aware of their constitutional rights since the declaration of independence due to the education system inherited from the Soviet system where analytical and critical thinking was not promoted. Secondly, He drew attention to the elimination of poverty and Azerbaijan`s success to reduce it from 56% to %5. Finally, he claims that social media at the wrong hands can be used to undermine democratic practices. 

As part of the format of the webinar, each speaker received one or two question(s), the moderator posed how does his school ADA University prepare students to tackle these current and ongoing issues, in particular, they will have a voice or position within next 5 or 10 years?

Dr. Ismailzade responded that we take our students to meet various religious communities in Azerbaijan toward understanding them and contributing in harmony in his country. 

The final speaker of the formal session was Mr. Özgür Öğret, Freelance Journalist & Turkey Representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Mr. Oğret starts with a comparison of past and present in terms of connectivity and says there is more free flow of information without institutional censorship. However, we face another problem namely, the spread of hate and hostility, as a result of the unethical use of this connectivity. The challenge here that awaits us is to take the matters into our hands without leaving them to any higher authorities such as governments/corporations to prevent from negative impacts of the internet.   

 Mr. Öğret emphasized his concerns toward upcoming social media-related upcoming laws in Turkey. 

On hate speech and fake news, he relies on the general public’s perception that they can distinguish whether it is fake news or not…

Then, the moderator asked, “Isn’t there any fake news?”

He replied in the following lines: There may be a few or maybe use some as a scapegoat but then use it to control and pressed the rest.

As the inspirational and transitional piece to the following session, “Imagine” by John Lennon was performed by Tiraje Guneyman Ruckman.

The next session is called, “Visions Toward Solutions”, which is one of the three key components under the umbrella of the given concept, “Downfall of Democracy”.

This section was co-moderated by Ali Alp Gürer, Youth Member of ATAA Committee on UN Relations. 

Three students’ from the ADA University (Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy) presented in this section. Ideas received by Ordukhan Gahramanzade(21), Senior student at ADA University, Bachelor of Arts in International Studies; and by Elnur Kerimov and Jamila Mammadova students at Ada University, Azerbaijan in connection with Downfall of Democracy – Covid-19 and Natural Disasters webinar.

Ordukhan Gahramanzade participated in person, and Ali Alp Gurer presented visions by Elnur Kerimov and Jamila Mammadova. 

The moderator announced the last piano performance titled, “What a Wonderful World” by Lois Armstrong performed once again, Tiraje Guneyman Ruckman. The moderator briefly introduced the pianist T.R. Ruckman and indicated that the pianist selected and performed specifically these three pieces for this webinar. 

Ali Alp Gurer introduced the moderator and author of the webinar, Bircan Ünver briefly for her Closing Remarks, in which, she thanked all the speakers, core organizers, contributing organizations, and students along with all attendees. 

In her Closing Remarks, Ms. Ünver has focused on one of the rare and best examples of Costa Rica in connection with democracy, reversing deforestation and the country’s well-recognized accomplishments such as “Champion of Earth” (2019, UN Environment Programme’s Award) on the global level along with congratulation of Costa Rica for its 200 Anniversary. 

All in all, the session clearly illustrated both historical and current ongoing threats against democracy and human rights on the one hand. And, the other, through each presentation, question, comment, and/or throughout the session, it has sought out the ideas toward solutions as the webinar presented one of the best existing examples in the world such as Costa Rica along with doable ideas and visions presented toward solutions.

The overarching concept of the webinar was delivered from multiple and international perspectives successfully.

The webinar concluded with thank yous, and one of the core organizers and the moderator Ms. Ünver also thanked to Mr. Hakan Dakin of ATAA.Org, who provided all the needed technical support throughout the session.

Attendees joined in the “Downfall of Democracy – Covid-19 and Natural Disasters: Visions Toward Solutions” titled webinar from Switzeland, Nigeria, Azerbaijan, India, Cyprus, France, Turkey and the United States along with various civil society representatives. 
Total received registration number: 141 (The session also web-streamed through Youtube.)

Comment:

Please accept my congratulations on the successful webinar yesterday; the team did a great job planning it. 

The program was very informative and touched on so many key issues we are dealing with in our time. The speakers were very knowledgeable subject-matter experts. 

My only hope is, each and every one of us takes these issues very seriously and does our part at a personal level. If everyone gets involved, then we can make a positive impact. 

Thank you for your and the team’s leadership. 

– Alev Wieland, ATAA Southwest Region VP

VIDEO | BOOKLET | CONCEPT NOTE

Özgür Oğret’s Speech

Visions Toward Solutions

Closing Remarks

References: 

Lyndon Johnson control the weather, to control the world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKB4L6r17FE

Dimming the Sun:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf78rEAJvhY

Hacking the Planet: The Catastrophic Consequences of Climate Change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVADMt7DOME

www.un.org/en/observances/democracy-day

www.un.org/en/observances/democracy-day/messages

www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/RuleOfLaw/Pages/Democracy.aspx

www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/peace-justice/

sdgs.un.org/goals/goal17

www.ataa.org | www.lmglobal.org | www.tadalliance.org