5,000 Teachers to Educate Refugee Children

Attending a conference on Syrian refugees organized by the Washington-based think tank Global Policy Institute, BAU Global Chair Enver Yücel described the investments made in Türkiye for the education of Syrian refugees.

The issue of Syrian refugees was discussed in depth at the conference held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, attended by the Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Dr. Riad H. Mansour, Chair of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Nihad Awad, GPI President Prof. Walid Phares, , Dr. Halil Mutlu, BAU Global Chairman of the Board Enver Yücel, New York University faculty member Prof. Selçuk Şirin, as well as US government officials and representatives of various civil society organizations.

At the conference organized by the Global Policy Institute (GPI) as a contribution to the international community's efforts to address the ongoing flow of refugees from the Middle East to Europe and this ever-growing humanitarian crisis, titled "Syria: Past, Present and Future" , practical policy recommendations were presented for people forced to leave their homes, aimed at supporting their integration into the countries where they have settled.

The keynote speaker of the conference, the Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Dr. Riad H. Mansour, approached the issue from a comparative perspective and raised the question "Is it possible to draw lessons from the Palestinian issue?" , while New York University faculty member Prof. Selçuk Şiringave a presentation on the situation of Syrians living in Türkiye, the country hosting the largest number of refugees in the world.

5,000 TEACHERS WILL TEACH TURKISH TO 300,000 REFUGEE CHILDREN

In his speech addressing the international dimensions of the refugee crisis and focusing on its educational aspect, BAU Global Chairman of the Board Enver Yücel said they had invested another 3 million dollars for Syrian refugees this year, had already trained 150 teachers to teach Turkish to Syrian refugees, and aimed to teach Turkish to 300,000 students with 5,000 teachers this summer.

Noting that at the World Economic Forum in Davos, even after four or five years, many world leaders were still discussing what would happen with the refugee issue, Yücel said:

"Everything is clear. The war in Syria will end, and meanwhile the people who are refugees will be educated and sent back to their countries. To do all this, both material and moral strength are needed. Türkiye has spent more than 9 billion dollars, while EU countries are still debating whether to give 3 billion dollars in aid, over how many years and how. I ask the countries of the European Union: what is a refugee child worth in your eyes? Can a one-year-old or a ten-year-old child have a fear? How befitting is it of the European Union to close its borders so as not to admit these people into your countries?"