TRT World Forum opens with focus on globalization

The third edition of an annual international meeting hosted by Turkey's public broadcaster TRT kicked off in Istanbul on Monday with a particular focus on globalization.

The two-day TRT World Forum with the theme "Globalization in Retreat: Risks and Opportunities" brought together opinion leaders, politicians, academics and journalists from many countries across the world.

The forum will be held over two days with more than 10 sessions to discuss issues that occupy the world agenda such as right-wing terrorism, the rise of populism and nationalism, the future of the Middle East, trade wars, the future of the European Union and the cooperation of emerging powers.

The murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi will be discussed on the second day of the TRT World Forum in Istanbul.

A special session will be dedicated to the issue which will address Khashoggi's murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and its connection with changing geopolitical balances in the Middle East.

Iyad Al-Baghdadi, president of the Norway-based Kawaakibi Foundation; Ghad al-Thawrah Party Leader and former Egyptian presidential candidate Ayman Nour; AK Party chairman's advisor Yasin Aktay; David Hearst, chairman of the London-based Middle East Eye website; Tawakkol Karman, president of the rights group Women Journalists Without Chains, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011; and Yahya İbrahim, a Saudi human rights activist and founder and director of the human rights organization ALQST, will seek answers about the murder at the session.

Other participants include UN General Assembly President Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces, former Brazilian President Dilma Vana Rousseff, Malaysian People's Justice Party leader Anwar Ibrahim, Yanis Varoufakis, the main opposition leader in Greece, Romanian Minister for European Affairs George Ciamba, former Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern, former Finnish Prime Minister Esko Aho and former Syrian Prime Minister Riyad Farid Hijab.