Prime Minister Davutoğlu receives Minister Avcı and teachers coming from 81 provinces  
Prime Minister Davutoğlu receives Minister Avcı and teachers coming from 81 provinces

Prime Minister Davutoğlu receives Minister Avcı and teachers coming from 81 provinces

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu received Minister of National Education Nabi Avcı and teachers coming from 81 provinces of the country on the occasion of November 24 Teachers’ Day.

Prime Minister Davutoğlu receives Minister Avcı and teachers coming from 81 provinces

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu received Minister of National Education Nabi Avcı and teachers coming from 81 provinces of the country on the occasion of November 24 Teachers’ Day at the Çankaya Palace.

During his speech at the dinner he organized in honor of the teachers from the 81 provinces, Prime Minister Davutoğlu said that he was happy to spend the evening with distinguished teachers who are raising the future generations who are considered as the assurance of future of the country not only as a peer but as a student.

Noting that he has seen the beautiful reflection of knowledge, wisdom and moral values on the faces of every single teacher in the dining room, Davutoğlu said, “There are three relationships that directly determine the existence of human kind and these relationships are timeless. One of these relationships is the relation between the father or the mother with the child. It is the biological existence relationship. This cannot be altered in anyway.  That deep love and serenity that every baby feels from the minute of his or her birth continues until death.”

Prime Minister Davutoğlu said that his teacher and the teacher of his spouse Dr. Sare Davutoğlu were also present at the dinner table and said the second kind of this relationship is the relation between the student and the teacher.

Stating that he had enjoyed this relationship as both student and teacher, Davutoğlu said, “Like a baby who does not forget the smell of his or her mother throughout his or her life, a good student always remembers the smell of his teacher and the knowledge he or she provided. I experienced this as a teacher. A teacher does not forget the minute he or she met with a real student. Now, my students are living in different parts of the World due to their jobs. Whenever I see one of my students in any part of the World, I remember them as little students in the classroom. Like biological existence depends on the father and the mother, moral and mental existence depends on the teacher-student relation. Our parents shape our physical appearances while mental and moral genetics are shaped by teachers. Physical health alone is not enough to define raising healthy generations.  A healthy generation does not only refer to physical health but also mental health. There are also some disabled teachers among us, the knowledge they transfer to students are so valuable that it cannot be replaced with something else. They are the architects of mental and spiritual existence.”

Davutoğlu said that he personally did not experience the third kind of relationships but had the chance to witness it from the experiences of his spouse Dr. Sare Davutoğlu who is a medical doctor.

“Relations between a doctor and his patient is typical to these relationships. It is a great honor to share this evening with you. I feel so happy to be with you on this Teachers’ Day. There are very distinguished doctors in our table but I specifically want to talk about one of our teachers who is Hacer Ertan. She is the spouse of a martyr. This martyr had the honor of being a son of a teacher and a spouse of another teacher. He sacrificed his life for his country and became a martyr. I want to commemorate all martyred teachers.  We must not forget to mention Mrs. Hacer who has lost her spouse during a terror attack. On the day of her spouse’s funeral, we told her that we were ready to do anything but her mind was busy with her students at Yüksekova. She was thinking about preparing a future for her students while she was mourning after the death of her spouse. She is such a noble lady. May Allah bless her.”

Davutoğlu conveyed his gratitude to all teachers who continue to do their jobs in every part of Turkey amidst country’s fight against terrorism and added, “While seriously fighting against terrorist activities, we are fully aware of the fact that, the fundamental condition of prevention of terrorism is to raise the next generations in peace, teaching people to love each other and how to be member of a common destiny, common nation with its Eastern and Western cities or Southern and Northern cities. Responsibility of prevention of terror activities does not only belong to soldiers but also to teachers. We cannot achieve success in our effort to prevent terrorism if we fail to educate our next generations. I want to convey my gratitude to teachers who are preparing our students living in the mountains of Hakkari, rivers by Euphrates and Tigris to the future and once more condemn all terrorists.”

Addressing teachers, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said, “While others are trying to discriminate and separate the children of this soil as Turkish, Kurdish, Alawite or Sunni, you must say that we shall not allow discrimination among those who stood in solidarity in the Gallipoli or Sarıkamış wars.”

Underlining that fact that teachers are responsible for raising a generation that will accept people of all provinces such as Edirne, Hakkari, İzmir, Diyarbakır, Konya and Şırnak as brothers and sisters Prime Minister Davutoğlu went on to say this would be the greatest contribution that can be done for the future of this country.

Prime Minister Davutoğlu said that campaign for education would also mean the campaign for national unity adding that, “If we fail to blend the campaign for education with the campaign for national unity, we would not be able to raise a generation loving and respecting each other.”

 

 “Plant the seeds of love“

“I have a request from you, no matter where you work, plant the seeds of love while fulfilling your duty as teachers. Others may try to plant the seeds of terrorism but you must keep planting the seeds of brotherhood. You have to work in an effort to brighten the future while others try to overshadow the future of this country. While others try to provoke separatism according to being Turkish, Kurdish, Alawite or Sunni and incite conflict among them, you must say that   we shall not allow discrimination among those who stood in solidarity in the Gallipoli or Sarıkamış wars. While others try to urge young people to fight in the mountains, you must try to direct them to schools and even Parliament for the future of this country. We have full confidence in you,“ he stated.

 

Two of Davutoğlu’s former high school teachers were present at the dinner

“The bond that you would build with the next generations should be so close that neither you nor students would forget each other’s names,” said Davutoğlu.

Noting that two of his former high school teachers were also present at the dinner, Davutoğlu said, “Two of my distinguished teachers are among us. Mr. İsmail Çağlayan and Mr. Mahir Yemen.”

 

Homework that was returned 31 years later

Davutoğlu told a story about his teacher İsmail Çağlayan when he was at the first grade of secondary school and said that he had written an essay about what he would like to achieve in the future and this homework was returned 31 years later.

Davutoğlu said that he had mentioned about his will to serve the country in the essay and went on to say, “It was 1971. My teacher congratulated me for the essay. Then in 2002, I served my country as the key advisor of Mr. Abdullah Gül who at the time was the Prime Minister of the country. Then I had the opportunity to perform the same duty for Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Then, my father called me to say that my teacher had returned my homework. He kept my essay for 31 year. This was the most important lesson my teacher taught me. He might not know that his student would become a Prime Minister advisor and then Prime Minister, one day. But he kept his work for 31 years and gave it as if it was a relic to his father. This means that he duly fulfilled his study.”

 

“Consider us as peers“

Davutoğlu said that he is careful to mantain his connections with all of his former teachers and he remembers all of his teachers with their names.

“You must know that one of your peers is serving as the Prime Minister of Republic of Turkey and the other is serving the Republic of Turkey as the Minister of National Education,” said Davutoğlu, “Do not have any hesitation to knock at the door of our peers. Do not consider us ahead of you in hierarchic sense, see us as peers and be sure that we will do everything in our power to for the sake of your students.” 

 

Teaching is a 7/24 profession

Prime Minister Davutoğlu said that there are some people who believe that teaching is limited with class hours and semesters but teachers are enjoying long summer holidays.

Noting that he had the habit of not taking long summer holiday leaves when he was a teacher and spent the entire summer mentally preparing for the next semester and he was aware that teaching is a 7/24 profession.

Prime Minister Davutoğlu stressed the budget of Ministry of National Education which was approximately 7.5 billion liras in 2002 exceeded 75 billion this year.

Stressing that teachers deserve the best of everything, Davutoğlu stressed that it is not possible to provide regular classes in Syria today and young people of that country have failed to receive proper education.

The Prime Minister stated that people who failed to lead their lives in Syria have arrived in Turkey and there are currently 470 thousand Syrian children living in Turkey that need education and 250 thousand of them have started to receive education.

Davutoğlu thanked young teachers who are educating these students and allowed Turkey to embrace oppressed people under hard conditions.

Noting that he recently had a chance to give a lecture in a high school, Davutoğlu said that he has been missing giving classes.

He reminded that people were still calling him as “teacher” while he was serving the country as an ambassador and then as a minister adding that, “People were saying they were sorry for calling me as a teacher and I was responding them by saying, ‘other titles are all temporary but being teacher is an eternal title.”

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