''Turkey is committed to maintaining its policy of leniency which has been the main spirit of the ancient Silk Road for centuries'' Arif Erdoğan, the chief adviser of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Sept. 22 in Urumqi, China. Speaking at the third Xinjiang event on the Silk Road, which was jointly organized by China Radio International (CRI), the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Arif Erdoğan underlined that the ancient Silk Road was not only a trade route from east to west, but was also a route which carried new ideas, religion and culture from the East to the West and vice-versa. Erdoğan said that this interaction reinvigorated the idea of coexistence and contributed significantly to world civilizations: "As for Turkey, we sincerely believe in the importance of maintaining this valuable interaction between civilizations and we are ready to do our part,'' he said.Reminding that all the conflicts and problems in today's world are rooted in intolerance, Erdoğan said that Turkey, on the contrary, considers these differences a source for enrichment -- not divergence -- of the communities. ''We sincerely believe that this idea should be followed, especially to find a solution for the oppressed nations. As a country, we never discriminated on the people of vulnerable, war-torn countries who fled away from Syria to seek shelter in our country like some European countries did,'' he said. ''From our perspective, this leniency policy is the main philosophy of the Silk Road that accepted and internalized all civilizations and cultures along the road. This was the main reason for success of the Silk Road for centuries and we should accept and implement the same values that we have inherited from our ancestors who traded on the ancient Silk Road,'' he concluded.Speaking at the event, Xia Jixuan, vice chairman of the CRI said that throughout history the Xinjiang region has always been a multi-ethnic, multicultural region and maintains the same values today. Stressing the role of the Xinjiang region in the "One Belt One Road" project as CRI, which broadcasts in 65 languages, Jixuan said they are ready and looking forward to improving cooperation in various fields with all Silk Road countries.