This past week, just before the Bayram
holiday, the Bilkent Atatürkçü Düşünce Topluluğu hosted a Republic Week where
prominent writers gave talks and shared their ideas with students. The events started with
a memorial ceremony for Ahmet Taner Kışlalı on the 19th of October.
The first talk was given by Mustafa Balbay, the Ankara representative for Cumhuriyet
newspaper. While talking about the life of Atatürk, Balbay emphasized many times that
Atatürk was an avid reader and he also added that the language makes the country, so we
should take care of our language. Balbay not only gave examples from current events in
Turkey, but also talked about his extensive travels to other countries.
The second talk was given by Turgut Özakman, the writer of the book “Şu Çılgın
Türkler.” Özakman started his speech by mentioning how he was 77 years old and worked
12 hours a day, and how he thought if only we would work as long and hard as he did, our
country would be in a much better place. After giving us a few book recommendations, he
talked about his own life, and shared his thoughts on Atatürk. He emphasized that the new
generation is being cut off from the right history because generally, people who have not
experienced the wars are writing about them. Özakman, a war veteran himself, shared a few
of his memories from his days as a soldier. He also believed that there were many
misconceptions and lies about Atatürk, mostly because we could not understand the genius
of Atatürk since we had not raised many geniuses as a country. He ended his speech by
telling us that we were a lucky generation, and everything we had was a result of
Independence, so we should take care of it.
In the end, Independence week was a success and the Atatürkçü Düşünce Topluluğu
were able to get their ideas across to students. If you believe in the ideas of Atatürk
and independence, I strongly urge you to join the Atatürkçü Düşünce Topluluğu. For
more information, contact Burak Çağlar at (543) 952-4239.
Sera De Vor (AMER/II)
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