Aiming to keep the Turkish language and culture alive in the United States of America and to raise modern generations who adhere to Ataturk's principles and values and embrace human, spiritual and cultural values, the Turkish Women's Association of America organized a program called "Education for Permanent Peace" to celebrate International Education Day. organized a program. ABDPost.Com New York Representative Özlem Özgüt Yörekli also participated in the program. The speaker in the program was Turkish educator Prof. Dr. Selçuk Şirin took part. Following the program, a signing day for Selçuk Şirin's book titled 'Either Justice or Misery' was held.
Speaking at the program, Selçuk touched upon the concern of Turks living in the United States half a century ago about the education of their children and said, "54 years ago or 55 years ago, people came together in New York and said, 'We, our children, are Atatürk in America.' How can we explain Turkey? How can we explain Turkey? 'How can we teach Turkish as their native language?'. They worried about this. Those who are concerned come together. They could have given dozens of reasons, but they didn't. They said we can do this. So we came together. If we told them that 50 years from now, 100 students will be studying in this school and this will be thanks to you. They probably believed that day, but no one around them believed them. "All good stories start like this," he said.
A QUESTION FROM TURKISH STUDENTS TO SELÇUK
Additionally, Selçuk answered the question of a student from the Turkish student community team who participated in the program. The student asked, "What kind of a road map should we follow, as Republican, Ataturkist young people, in order to introduce ourselves to Americans and to transform the perception of Turks into a secular and modern one?" On the question Selçuk said, “Were you here when Orhan Pamuk received the Nobel Prize in the early 2000s? Do you know that it was very cool to be Turkish back then? Everyone was going to Istanbul. In fact, the list of restaurants in Istanbul was published in the New York Times. I don't think you should spend too much energy on transforming Turkey's image, because let me tell you, Atatürk is like this, that is not something that will happen. People are much more sophisticated than we realize. When I hear 2 news about Turkey, everything you said falls to the wayside. A difficult job. Activities are held at school, but my biggest advice to you is; Look at the success of those who founded this Atatürk Primary School 50 years ago. The secret of success is to have a concrete joint project. So, come together and teach English to 20 students in Turkey, or do something that will make you happy when you see the concrete results here. Do you know what happens when you can't see it concretely? "After a while, motivation decreases, the number of people coming decreases, and our job becomes much more difficult," he said. This answer that Selçuk gave to Turkish students was appreciated.
