Protection of Academic Heritage in
the Middle East
Last week the Council of
Turkish Higher Education (YÖK) hosted under the auspices of Presidency of
Turkish Republic an important conference titled the “Project for Protecting
Academic Heritage in the Middle East.” In collaboration with Turkish Radio
Television Corporation (TRT) and Anatolian News Agency (AA), the project was
coordinated by Professor Zeliha Kocak Tufan, the member of YÖK’s supervisory
board, and the conference was attended by the vice president of the Turkish
Republic, YÖK’s head, ambassadors, rectors and representatives of Turkish
Universities, along with particularly Syrian academicians and students living in
Turkey. Within the scope of the project, first, participants first watched the heart-wrenching
stories of those Syrian refugee scholars and students at Turkish universities, filmed
by TRT and supported with visual pictures by AA, and then followed protocol
speeches in accordance with the content of the project and conference.
Syrian civil war has displaced
millions of people from their home since 2011, fuelling further the
already-existing bloodshed, skirmish, and misery in the Middle East. It has
ruined the lives, hopes, and future of Syrian people; unfortunately, while many
innocent people died, the civil conflict has also forced many others forlornly to
flee and take shelter in the neighbouring countries such as Turkey, Lebanon,
and Jordan leaving behind what they owned – house, land, relatives, education,
imagination, expectation, stories, memories and so on. For instance, now Turkey
hosts around 4 million Syrian refugees. Unlike developed Western countries,
Turkey, as it did in the past, has extended its hand of humanity to them – it
has built a home from them; it has provided them with food, security, and jobs.
Simply, Turkey, with the great efforts of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and generous
and humane Turkish people, has proved to the whole world how it values human
and helps those in need when necessary.
As the project above clearly
indicates, however, Turkey has done more than sheltering and proving food and
security to the displaced Syrian refugees in that it has contributed significantly
to the protection of academic heritage
in the Middle East, even though it is not well understood and seen inside and
outside Turkey. Hence the projects above has aimed not only at raising
awareness of Turkish public but also at showing the entire world how Turkey is
keen to heed the conservation of academic heritage in the Middle East as well,
which will definitely lay a foundation for the advancement of knowledge and
science, as well as for the rebirth of the lost civilization in the future in
Syria in particular and in the Middle East in general. It seems the only way
which makes Syria and Middle East a free liveable place.
Turkey, though it has been
very difficult, seems to have managed the protection of academic heritage in
two ways as also documented in the project. First, since 2016, the Turkish government has done its best to
expand education for around 830.000 Syrian refugee students in public schools or
in temporary education centres, where an accredited curriculum is offered in
Arabic. At moment around 615.000 Syrian refugee students are registered either at
Turkish public schools or at temporary education centres. Moreover, nearly
15.000 Syrian refugee students also continue their higher education at both
undergraduate and graduate levels at Turkish Universities. Because the Syrian
civil war has not only destroyed the lives, homes, and land of Syrian people,
but it has also devastated schools, universities, libraries, research centres,
archives, and museums, monuments of historic, scientific and artistic interest,
which had been achieved in a long time. Hence many students at a certain age
were able to attend university, and many others have had to give up their
higher education unfinished, and even they have had to leave with no official
documents. In order to enable 19-20 year old Syrian students and in order to
help those students restart their unfinished higher education, therefore, the
Turkish government, along with YÖK, has enforced several laws and regulations
by which they have become able to register at Turkish universities with missing
documents and even transfer their previously taken courses to Turkish
Universities; the recognition procedures of the degrees taken before in Syria
have been eased; day education students at Turkish universities do not pay
tuition fee, and finally they also receive scholarship for meeting their living
expenses during their higher education. With these utmost good faiths and
efforts, Turkey has succeeded in protecting Syrian refugee children from
fading.
What is more, the Syrian war
has also put Syrian scholars into a serious danger. Many died regrettably; many
others have found themselves in a desperate position, in which their research
projects and academic activities have been interrupted; they have become unable
to practice their professions in a free and secure way, and eventually many
qualified scholars have had to flee their country in the wake of the
destruction of their schools, universities, libraries and research centres.
Turkey, unlike several other Muslim and Western countries in the Middle East, has
also opened its doors to these disadvantaged scholars the same as ordinary
Syrian people. In this respect, YÖK has launched a system of foreign academics
or what is also called “CV Banks for foreign scholars.” Syrian scholars have
sent their CVs to this system, which YÖK has shared with the universities in
Turkey. Thus, currently, more than 400 Syrian scholars work for both public and
foundation universities in Turkey. Not only are these scholars be to practice their
professions seamlessly in a secure and respectful way, but they also earn their
living without depending on anyone in Turkey.
All these well-intentioned
humane efforts above realized by the Turkish government to engage Syrian
refugee students into secondary and higher education and to hire Syrian
scholars at Turkish universities are of vital importance for protecting the
academic heritage in the Middle East for the sake of the future. As to the
conservation of the academic heritage, what Turkey has done will certainly give
rise to the resurrection of lost generation, knowledge and civilisation in the
Middle East. Those Syrian refugee students who get secondary and higher education
in Turkey will be the future of their country; once they are back, they will
rebuild their country different from one which has crippled their lives,
together with the lives of their parents and elder fellow country people; they
will also rebuild their schools, universities, research centres and so on,
which will sustain what was left half or interrupted. And scholars will take
their profession, knowledge, and experiences back to and guide their country
into a bright future. In this respect, the “Project for Protecting Academic
Heritage in the Middle East” was very informative and useful, and it obviously illuminates
that Turkey, with its limited means but with good faith and intention, has
achieved a great job and proved once again its civilised perspective as to its
concern for education, knowledge, science, intellectuality and so on.
Prof. Dr. Ali Güneş
Social Sciences
University of Ankara
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