Enver Yucel, President of BAU Global, Has Made Speech at the Meeting of United Nations Alliance of Civilizations

 Enver Yucel, President of BAU Global, Has Made Speech at the Meeting of United Nations Alliance of Civilizations

Enver Yucel, who made speech at the UN, stated that “The hate language towards different beliefs and religions in the textbooks should be removed.”

The President of BAU Global, Enver Yucel, received great appreciation with his speech at the UN Meeting attended with the participation of United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres. Yucel stated that “The hate language towards different beliefs and religions in the textbooks should be removed.”

The UN Alliance of Civilizations Group of Friends Ministerial Meeting took place in New York with the participation of UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, UN High Representative of Alliance of Civilizations, Miguel Moratinos, BMW Group Vice President of Communication Strategy, Bill McAndrews, and Foreign Ministers of the countries. Turkish instructor, Enver Yucel who made speech titled “The Importance of Education in the Alliance of Civilizations” at the meeting expressed his sincere thanks to UN High Representative, Moratinos, for giving opportunity to express his observations on education. Yucel stated that “The fact that people cannot live together in peace and the use of different beliefs and cultures for other purposes and benefits, underlie the problems we face in the world.”

“We need to invest in strong education systems which support life skills and social cohesion.”

Yucel who emphasized that the diversity based on race, religion, and denominational differences is not a richness, it is a cause for alienation, stated that “This problem is not observed at the developed countries too much, but it is more concerning in the regions where education is limited. I express my sincere thanks mainly to the President of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and former Prime Minister of Spain, Mr. Zapatero for launching such an initiative in the Alliance of Civilizations project in order that people from different culture and religion can live in peace. The project should be further developed and permanent.”

In his speech, Yucel who said that investing in strong education systems which support learning, life skills and social cohesion to overcome today’s problems is has great importance, stated that “I believe that quality education is the biggest factor in this issue. As a dedicated educator, I would say that if we educate children at young age by respecting human dignity, differences and developing a sense of belonging humanity, a bright future awaits us. At the core of global citizenship education there are values that will support peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, safe and sustainable societies. As the founder of an educational network which provides education services to more than 200.000 students at all levels, we conduct projects, create and implement curriculums related to the culture of living together by cooperating with United Nations expert organizations and institutes. I emphasize that the most important issue in the world is the lack of culture of living together. In order to achieve this goal, the global citizenship program should be included in the agenda of all countries and education curriculum. In line with the 2030 objectives, Sustainable Development Goals should be added to the curriculum of the countries and the principles should be adopted. “

Yucel who shared his considerable projects on this issue in Turkey stated that “Firstly, Batiya Dogru Akan Nehir (The river flowing towards West) project that we is produced by us as a documentary of civilizations and is a course of history of civilizations in our university discusses global inclusive civilization. The basic ideas, civilizations, religious we present are all for humanity. The superiority to each other is unacceptable.”

“We enable our students to make intercultural exchanges”

BAU Global President, Enver Yucel, who said that “I adopt the vision of Miguel Moratinos, the High Representative of UN Alliance of Civilizations, in the field of education which he presents in the Alliance of Civilizations”, stated that “We have to put in our curriculum courses, subjects which reflect this vision. It is important to implement student exchange programs such as Erasmus in Europe within the scope of the vision of Alliance of Civilizations. I would like to say that we have already contributed to this vision with our projects and works. We have integrated the objectives of global citizenship, culture of living together, and sustainable development goals into our curriculum at all levels in our educational institutions. We give scholarship to students from African countries in our schools to allow them to make intercultural exchanges. In addition, we have been hosting summer schools in Istanbul for ten years, where students from different languages, religions, universities and cultures regularly attend.”

Yucel who states that the preventative diplomacy approach of Mr. Moratinos has great importance for educators in preventing conflict, said that “Young people play an important role in preventing conflicts in the long term. In order to prevent conflicts, a role with inclusive approach should be given to the civil society, women, youth and religious leaders besides policy makers. All I want to say under this vision is that people and countries can boast their history and heroism, but the hate language towards opposite side should be removed as a requirement of global citizenship education. Especially in the textbooks, the hate language towards different beliefs and religions should be removed. Then we have a bright future. So, we leave a good future for our children and grandchildren. “

The meeting was held under the sponsorship of Turkey and Spain at no. 2 conference room where global call meeting for protection of religious freedom hosted by US President Donald Trump was held on the previous day.