Enver Yücel Addresses the European Parliament

Bahçeşehir University Chair of the Board of Trustees Enver Yücel addressed the European Parliament in Brussels, the capital of Belgium. In his speech, Yücel said: "I am happy to address you as the head of a civil initiative and an education volunteer at this very important meeting addressing an agenda closely related to the future of humanity, 'Bridges Between Cultures: New Beginnings in Crisis Resolution.' I am an education volunteer. We all know that education is the most important provider of sustainable peace. Education, the fundamental factor shaping the future of the individual, is an equally important factor in the establishment, shaping and permanence of social peace. Education is indispensable for peace. Based on this fact, education is the address both of the only solution that can prevent conflicts between cultures and of the only condition for lasting peace between cultures. I should note that the education I am talking about is not only about science, mathematics and similar sciences and disciplines. For those, it would perhaps be more accurate to use the term instruction."

EDUCATION IS A BRIDGE

Stating that education is the virtuous activity that leads people toward the good, the right and the beautiful, and humanity toward peace and prosperity in line with common values, Enver Yücel said: "Education is a bridge of peace and tranquility. Bridges have always been structures that bring people closer to people and countries closer to countries, making the distant near. Walls, on the other hand, have separated and divided people and made them strangers to one another, if not enemies. Now we must build more bridges and forget about building walls. Today, thanks to technology, we have many bridges that allow us to eliminate divisions and separations. We have very rich arguments that will bring people to people, thought to thought, belief to belief and humanity to peace. In other words, we have many bridges we can use. But can we say that these bridges have brought us closer to one another than in the past? Can we say that we look at each other with more understanding and are more tolerant toward each other? This is what we must reflect on."

"WITH TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT, DISCRIMINATORY RHETORIC MUST BE REMOVED FROM BOOKS"

Stating that he would very much like to be able to answer 'yes' to the question of whether there have been developments for cultures and civilizations commensurate with the opportunities provided by technology, Yücel said: "Of course, one can speak of good things that have happened and positive developments, but it is not possible to say that they are at a sufficient level. As these changes take place and books are transferred to technological environments and made more accessible, their content must also be cleansed of negative rhetoric so that they build bridges. Look, our country removed discriminatory rhetoric from its books regarding the Turkish-Greek conflicts. Yes, we invented and built ways sufficient to get to know one another, to bring us together and to talk to each other more easily, but unfortunately we have not managed to talk to each other sincerely. We have not sufficiently internalized understanding one another and thinking by putting ourselves in the other's place. These tools have not been enough to bring about an embrace of our cultures and civilizations. We have wonderful technologies, but no content. Yet content is what matters. And that content is realized through people. Therefore, the real subject of the agenda is the human being: the human being who builds bridges and who, thanks to those bridges, will turn the world into a garden of friends; the human being who crosses those bridges to knock on a neighbor's door, who opens their door to their neighbor and makes the world more beautiful! In other words, the educated human being."

HUMANITY AND DISCRIMINATION

Saying, "To the extent that we can raise world citizens who reject all kinds of discrimination, including religious, racial and gender discrimination, which are among humanity's oldest and greatest sources of suffering, as well as all forms of discrimination emerging in different ways according to periods, countries and conditions, who have embraced the culture of living together and who can empathize under all conditions, we will also have achieved sustainable peace," Enver Yücel strongly underlined that what must first and foremost be taught to young generations is the culture of living together, and that for this reason European Union citizenship will not be enough; a world citizenship curriculum must definitely be on the agenda of educators and administrators.

WORLD CURRICULUM AND THE EUROPEAN UNION

Stating that they have initiatives on a world curriculum and the European Union, Enver Yücel said: "We are making an intensive effort. We will soon have established the World Union of Deans of Education Faculties. What should the content of such a curriculum be? What is EU citizenship, and what should it be? What is world citizenship, and what should it be? These concepts, understandings and teachings have not yet become part of the education system. As Türkiye, as a citizen of a country that wants to join the EU, I want to be a Turk who is an EU member and an EU citizen, but are the people living in the EU at this point? Is education being provided on a common ground? These should have been achieved in the European Union by now. We, however, have gone beyond this, and we say that we should now talk about a world citizenship curriculum."

Saying, "We must include the characteristics of being a world citizen in our curricula and arrange our curricula so as to instill these characteristics. I believe that the World Union of Deans of Education Faculties will achieve important successes in this regard," Enver Yücel continued: "I can say this very comfortably: my country, Türkiye, especially for a little more than the last ten years, has become a never-ending construction site of EU criteria. My country is working wholeheartedly to fulfill all requirements, from EU harmonization laws to EU criteria. But if the concept and philosophy of being an EU citizen had taken root as a teaching 54 years ago and education in it had begun, our accession to the Union would probably have taken place decades ago. This means we must breathe life into bridges and tools; we must seek solutions that will ensure the culture, teaching and habit of living together."

"LET US ABANDON THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN FRIEND AND ENEMY"

Saying, "As you all know, there is a field in psychology where the concept of self is at work: altruism. We have no choice but to make the culture of living together prevail in the world, with a perspective that is able to compromise, give chances and forgive, and that unites rather than divides. It is time to abandon the discrimination of 'you are my enemy, you are my friend,'" Yücel said: "At this point I would like to give this example: We decided that Türkiye's direction is the West and worked in this direction. We applied to the EU exactly 54 years ago, and as a country, for more than the last ten years, we have been making a tremendous effort, considering EU accession a priority goal. I am concerned that the prolongation of the candidacy period will undermine the Turkish people's motivation on this issue, reduce their desire and even negatively affect their sense of trust in the EU. We all clearly see that at times both our politicians' faith decreases and the Turkish people intensely feel that they are being 'othered.' We cannot help asking whether the EU does not accept our different culture as a richness of civilization, and the question of whether the EU is othering us often comes to mind. We must definitely overcome these."

THE POLITICS OF COMMON GROUND

Stating that he sees the EU as a common living space for people belonging to different cultures and civilizations, Enver Yücel said: "This idea, which creates a whole from the diversity of cultures, is an idea that eliminates the concept of othering. The policy to be adopted should be 'the politics of common ground.'"

"STUDENT EXCHANGE IS A CULTURAL BRIDGE"

Stating that greater contribution should be made to Erasmus in education and student exchange programs should be supported more, Yücel said: "EU Erasmus programs also provide great support for this. Student exchange has a very important function in building cultural bridges.
We should no longer be content, for our children and young people, with only these technologies and education in the traditional system where the teacher lectures in the classroom. Life as a whole is a field of learning. For this reason, our leaders, prime ministers, presidents and parliamentarians must be good examples. During the changes brought about by technological developments, let us urgently remove the bad rhetoric in our textbooks. We believed that hostile rhetoric about the common Turkish-Greek history should be removed from our books, and we removed this hostile rhetoric. Countries all over the world are now moving their curricula to technological environments; on this occasion, we should remove bad rhetoric and focus on common ground. As humanity, we should look not at the empty half of the glass but at the full half. Textbooks must be cleansed. Let our children read about friendship, not hostility, in their books, and let them develop faith in living together and a common future through their education."

Stating that we can speak of a more livable world when the resources allocated to education in the world exceed those allocated to armament, Enver Yücel said: "With the support of our country's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, my University produced a very important documentary on these issues. This documentary is now being watched at many universities around the world and broadcast on television in many countries, for example on channels such as ARTE France and ARTE Germany. We are happy to have made this documentary, which explains and conveys from an objective perspective that all civilizations are the common heritage of humanity, and we believe that such work should increase and become a common curriculum in education systems."

"THE VISA REQUIREMENT SHOULD BE LIFTED"

Stating that Bahçeşehir University wants to pioneer the third-generation university concept in the world, Chair of the Board of Trustees Enver Yücel said: "We are determined to pursue not a university concept enclosed by campus walls, but a university concept whose campus is recognized worldwide. We are opening campuses in many parts of Europe. But after studying for 3 months, students must return. Therefore, the visa requirement applied to students and academics from Türkiye must be lifted. Such a problem no longer exists in the world. We must overcome this together."

DISCRIMINATION AND THE EXAMPLE OF FRANCE

Stating that it is saddening that politicians adopt attitudes that feed and support hostility by turning certain historical events into material for domestic politics in order to please their voters, Yücel said: "Unfortunately, we have seen such examples in our friend France. We all need common ground that unites rather than divides humanity to be explained and internalized."

OUR AID CAMPAIGN FOR SYRIA AND SYRIAN CHILDREN

Stating that sustainability must first and foremost become an important concept in conflict resolution, Yücel said: "Adversity anywhere in the world now affects the whole world. The tragedy in Syria, right next to Türkiye, not only plunges the people of that country into suffering but surrounds us all in waves. We thought about how we could take a positive approach to this, and as Bahçeşehir University we launched a psychological counseling and aid campaign for children in Syrian refugee camps. We always call for projects like this to be carried out together."

Yücel continued: "We must make an effort to make the culture of living together, with a perspective of world citizenship, a part of individuals' outlook on life. In today's knowledge economy, the most important virtue has become social networking; for this reason, being a world citizen is important. It is gratifying that the 'Alliance of Civilizations Project,' put forward by the United Nations and to whose implementation my country's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has made great contributions, is supported by 130 countries. We should come together more often and do more work in this field. Of course, politicians will lead and take priority in relations, but we know that the bonding and understanding of peoples is more important than some decisions taken. I very much like this saying: 'Politicians warm up and cool down quickly like soil; peoples are like the sea, they warm up slowly and cool down slowly.'"

At the end of his speech, Enver Yücel said: "Speaking under the roof of the European Parliament, I would like to express my gratitude to President of the Parliament Martin Schulz, who appreciates the importance of Türkiye-European Union integration, and to Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle for their positive efforts, and to express my happiness that new chapters are being opened for Türkiye, for my country."