"Turkish Schools Make Significant Contributions Across the Globe"
World-renowned Russian scholar Rostislav Rybakov has stated that Turkish schools, recently the focus of an article in The New York Times, are not well enough known, noting that these schools have made major contributions around the world.
Rybakov, who is the director of the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences and the head of the Dialogue Eurasia Platform (DA), stated that Turkish schools are capable of abolishing radicalism not only in Pakistan, which The New York Times focused upon in its article, but also in the rest of the world.
Rybakov, Gudmila Orlova, his assistant, Niha Nazirova, from the same faculty, Nadejda Emedyonava, Tatyana Filippova, the editor-in-chief of the Radina journal, Ali Sami Yildirim, the Russian Federation coordinator of the DA journal, and Elena Kalinina, a reporter for the DA journal, visited Bursa, where they gave several talks and visited schools.
The Russian delegation was impressed by the historical and culture texture of Bursa, where they visited Bursa Governor Şahabettin Harput at his office.
Noting that he has been to Turkey several times and visited İstanbul and Ankara, Rybakov said he was very much moved by Bursa, which, he said, suffers from a lack of sufficient publicity. "Whenever you want, you may come visit Moscow and be our guest. You'll be relieved to see that there are much bigger problems in Moscow," he said jokingly to the governor. Governor Harput stated that his administration is working to improve tourism in Bursa.
Rybakov told the Cihan news agency that the delegation wants to learn more about how the Turkish schools work and to discover more about their economic and cultural infrastructure, noting that they came to Turkey to do this. Regarding the recent coverage of the schools by The New York Times, he said: "I was surprised to see their headline. But this is not sufficient as they should cover what these schools have been achieving around the globe, not only in Pakistan. This news story essentially suggests that Turkish schools prevent radicalism. The people of the world have very limited knowledge about these schools. If they knew more about them, they would not be so surprised. They do not know much about how these schools operate. These schools make significant contributions to peace not only in Pakistan, as The New York Times highlighted, but also everywhere around the globe. The New York Times should not be content with this single story. They should also cover other success stories of these schools around the world. Actually we can say that this visit of ours has given us a precious opportunity to study the operating mode and economic and cultural infrastructure of these schools, and see the warm hospitality of the Turkish people."
A ‘feast’ to visit these schools
Rybakov explained that they had visited the private Burç colleges and that they were particularly impressed by the students at Nilüfer High School in Bursa. "We've seen the Nilüfer educational institutions. We have observed that students were very idealistic; it was a feast to visit these schools. This is what can be said about these schools: Instruction and education can be given in any school; quality of education can be improved, but these schools have an important advantage. They teach moral values using the best methods, by ensuring that students love them. People heartily adopt this good behavior and manners and become eager to tell others about them and implement them in their daily lives. Wherever we go, we come across idealistic teachers. This is a very important advantage. This may not be a proper comparison, but Russia lacks such an advantage. After the collapse of communism, moral values in Russia were transformed, particularly with the introduction of the free market economy. Now we are trying to recover from this collapse. For this reason, it is essential for us to work with the Dialogue Eurasia Platform," he said.
After the visit, the Russian delegation posed for a photo in front of the governor's offices.(Fatih Karakiliç, Tuna Ala, Bursa)
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