BRIQ Special Issue Call for Papers: Cultural Cooperation under the Belt & Road Initiative: On the Occasion of UNESCO’s Celebration of 2021 as the Year of Yunus Emre”

Special Issue Call for Papers: Cultural Cooperation under the Belt & Road Initiative: On the Occasion of UNESCO’s Celebration of 2021 as the Year of Yunus Emre”

Belt & Road Initiative Quarterly (BRIQ) is currently seeking submissions for a special issue on “Cultural Cooperation under the Belt & Road Initiative: On the Occasion of UNESCO’s Celebration of 2021 as the Year of Yunus Emre”.

The Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) seeks to develop a shared conception of the world, particularly for Asian and Eurasian countries, which would provide ample opportunities for the construction of strong and solidaristic bridges between independent states and peoples. For thousands of years, peoples living in the Global South have come to create shared human values despite a long history of conflicts. This being said, imperialism has been a major source of conflicts that serve to undermine such values. One should acknowledge that imperialism as a world-system is built on strong cultural dynamics, and certainly, developing countries involved in the Belt & Road Initiative face the cultural assaults of imperialism and struggle to retain their cultural and intellectual heritage, while seeking to strengthen cultural bonds of cooperation, solidarity, and trust between peoples.

In this regard, Yunus Emre, whose historical relevance is acknowledged by UNESCO celebrating 2021 as the Year of Yunus Emre, appears as a strong symbol of the Asian Age. Yunus Emre’s work emphasizes the universal aspects of different cultures and cultural cooperation in the Eurasian region. His legacy, which can be summarized in his dictum “looking at seventy-two different nations with the same eye” and his agelong philosophy of “Come, let us all be friends for once/ Let us make life easy on us/ Let us be lovers and loved ones/ The earth shall be left to no one”, may serve as a springboard for revealing shared values between different cultures of the Global South, notably the strong bonds between the Islamic and Turkish values and other civilizations such as the Russian, Persian, Arabian, Chinese and Indian civilizations. UNESCO’s “Yunus Emre Year” helps us to revive the shared values of the Global South around tolerance, peace, friendship, and happiness without selfishness.

Based on the context depicted above, BRIQ calls for academic articles, essays, and book reviews that address issues related to cultural cooperation in the Global South:

• Cultural studies on bridging different cultures in a universal context for the success of political formations and developments in the countries of the BRI and other developing regions,
• Studies on opportunities for appreciating the shared understanding of humanity in different cultures (Turkish, Persian, Arabian, Russian, Chinese, Latin American etc.),
• Programmes to develop cooperation for stronger cultural solidarity and dialogue among the countries of the BRI,
• The importance of culture, arts, literature, and fine arts for global cooperation in the 21^st century,
• Papers that address the potential of philosophy, including that of Yunus Emre, to help improve the cooperation of BRI countries and build a better human civilization.

Deadline for Paper Submissions: July 15, 2021