Europe Asia News

Organized on August 6–8 and hosted by Yeditepe University, the event brought speakers from dozens of countries, from South America to Europe, and from East Asia to West Asia. The opening session on August 6 was chaired by WAPE Secretary Prof. Xiaoqin Ding.

Opening speeches were delivered by Yeditepe University Vice Rector Prof. Dr. Ipek Karaaslan, WAPE President Prof. Cheng Enfu, and Adnan Akfırat, President of the Turkish-Chinese Business Development and Friendship Association.

The first session, chaired by Alan Freeman, included presentations from Christos Papatheodorou, member of WAPE’s Standing Council from Panteion University; Alberto Lombardo from the University of Palermo; WAPE Advisor and President of the Free Economic Society Sergey Bodrunov; Zhou Wen, member of WAPE’s Standing Council from Fudan University; Andrii Grytsenko from the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; WAPE Vice President Niemeyer Almeida Filho; Cornelius Renkl, member of the Standing Council from Germany; and Alp Erinç Yeldan from Kadir Has University.

Winners of the World Marxist Economics Award were: Korkut Boratav (Turkey), Jian Xinhua (Wuhan University, China), Radhika Desai (University of Manitoba, Canada), and He Ganqiang (Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, China).

Recipients of the 21st Century World Political Economy Outstanding Achievement Award were: Alberto Lombardo (University of Palermo, Italy); Özgur Orhangazi and Alp Erinç Yeldan (Kadir Has University, Turkey); Li Zhengtu (Shanghai International Studies University, China); Stavros Mavroudeas and Costas Passas (Panteion University, Greece); Sabah Alnasseri (York University, Canada); Liu Runqiu (Sichuan University, China); Andrii Grytsenko (National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine); Sousuke Morimoto (Rikkyo University, Japan); Vincent James Hooper (SP Jain School of Global Management, Australia); and Li Linan (Xiamen Institute of Technology, China).

Political economists from around the world gathered at Yeditepe University’s Kayışdağı campus to discuss global economic and political transformations. On the second day of the forum, 50 scholars presented papers in 15 parallel sessions on topics such as artificial intelligence, ecology, the Digital Silk Road, the Marxist Macroeconomic Model, multipolarity, global economic transformation and the United Nations, geopolitical economy, the practice of socialist modernization in China, economic theories, regional blocs, and the multipolar world order.

Discussions on these topics examined global power shifts from the perspective of political economy, based on economic data-driven research.

The forum concluded with a closing session. Over the three days, 70 papers were presented in sessions focused primarily on multipolarity. Parallel sessions in separate halls fostered active exchanges of views between presenters and participants.

At the end of the event, the Final Declaration of WAPE’s 18th Annual Forum was announced. The first item addressed the massacres in Gaza: “The massacre in Gaza, broadcast live on television screens, is concrete evidence of the crimes of contemporary imperialism. This war is the most striking example of the malicious and unjust wars provoked by imperialism.” The declaration called on political economists to cooperate and conduct joint research on imperialist wars.

The declaration emphasized the vital importance of opposing imperialism and hegemony in the economic, political, cultural, and military spheres for peace, development, and security. It stated that the emerging multipolar world order paves the way for development paths and models based on the national conditions of countries. It also underlined that a new wave of scientific and technological revolution—represented by new energy, new materials, digital technology, and artificial intelligence—is being manipulated by the imperialist world.

The declaration stressed the need for an egalitarian global economic and political order, opposition to trade wars and the use of the dollar-based global economic system as a weapon, and called for the reconstruction of an international monetary system based on equality and productivity.