Necmeddin Bilal Erdoğan, President of the World Ethnosport Confederation, was a guest on CNN Türk’s Weekend with Hakan Çelik's program. Erdoğan, commenting about many of the issues on the agenda, also provided information about the works of the World Ethnosport Confederation (WEC).
Conveying the serious efforts WEC conducts on protecting cultural diversity around the world, Erdoğan stated, “The foundation of the World Ethnosport Confederation has been launched together with the World Nomad Games. By centering on the traditional sports of many countries, we as WEC are working to increase the awareness of these sports. Our main goal here is to protect and maintain cultural diversity. Cultural injustice exists in the world. We believe that remedying this injustice will strengthen societal liaisons on the basis of mutual understanding.”
Referring to the World Ethnosport Confederations worldwide efforts operating to increase and spread the awareness of traditional sports, Erdoğan made this assessment, “We currently have 19 member organizations from 14 countries. We simultaneously are continuing a variety of academic studies with assistance from these countries. At the same time, we provide scholarship opportunities to students performing doctoral studies on traditional sports around the world. In order to be able to maintain a wide disciplinary field of academic studies, the Traditional Sports and Games Application and Research Institute has been established at Hacı Bayram Veli University. This center will sign off on studies for protecting and providing the sustainability of traditional sports and games."
Expressing their continued support of the many academic studies contributing to cultural wealth, Erdoğan stated, “We have organized the forum ‘Reviving Traditional Sports’, which we conduct annually with participants from over 50 countries. In the forum we additionally signed a declaration with the sports ministers of eight countries that will enable cooperation with WEC for the survival of traditional sports. The fact that these countries have staked a claim on traditional sports at the state level is a very significant case in terms of preserving their own cultures.”
