The African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) is a group of countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific that was created by the Georgetown Agreement in 1975. The group's main objectives are sustainable development and poverty reduction within its member states, as well as their greater integration into the world's economy.

The book contains the texts of the international conference held in Istanbul on October 20, 2015 by the Turkish National Commission for UNESCO (UTNC) for the 10th year of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005). Evaluations of the international experts on the implementations of the 2005 Convention over the 10 years, know-how from the public sector managers and as the most important emphasis of the contract, opinions and discussions of the representatives of the cultural industry professional associations in Turkey, creative economy actors and artists have been included in the book.

The book titled Cultural Diplomacy: Arts, Festivals and Geopolitics which was edited by Prof. Milena Dragićević Šešić, Ljiljana Rogač Mijatović and Nina Mihaljinac has recently been published.

On the first day of this year’s meeting on cultural networks, ENCATC The European Network on Cultural Management and Policy which celebrates its 25th anniversary, first held a network session on the current projects and cooperation of the members, then enabled further integration of the group that has been formed and supported by it’s General Assembly. Since Taiwan and the US counterparts, TACPS and AAAE, have also been hosted at ENCATC meetings in the last couple of years, developments in Asia and North America can be brought into debate by the conveyance of stakeholders.  At this year's meeting, the diversity of discussions has increased in the joint sessions with cases from different countries and different cultural policy practices.

ABOUT THIS ISSUE

Since 2004, the UNESCO Creative Cities Network highlights its members’ creativity within seven fields: Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts and Music.

ISBN 978-605-399-487-9

The book of the 3rd National Cultural Council of Turkey, which was held on March 3-5, 2017 in Istanbul by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, has been published. The book begins with the preface of Minister of Culture and Tourism Nabi Avcı, carries on with the opening speeches of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Minister in the council, followed with 17 chapters that were discussed in different commissions.

Aphrodisias Archaeological Site, located in Aydın, Karasu, has been included on the world heritage list and taken under protection during the 41st UNESCO World Heritage Committee session in Krakow, Poland.

As decided at the Civil Society Forum held at the Conference of Parties to the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions in Paris in June 2017, an international survey was initiated to monitor the Convention's awareness among the non-governmental organizations and the levels of their implementation of the Convention. The survey is conducted by the Cultural Diversity Coalitions, which advocates for the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions in different countries around the world and as a result of the findings, a civil society report is planned to be released in the upcoming weeks.