Yaşamda Farklılıkları Yönetmek | Ahmet Hilmi Eren | TEDxBes Minare Youth

First of all, I wish the 101st anniversary of our Republic to be blessed and happy, and I extend my love and respect to our valuable viewers who are watching us physically face-to-face or online. Dear viewers, I want to start my words with a determination. The city we are in right now is a poor city of Turkey, Bitlis, which is the third poorest city in Turkey in terms of per capita income. I was born in this city, and my life until I finished high school passed in this city. Not to boast, from the first grade of primary school until I finished high school, I was always the first in my class.

I walked to Kazımpaşa Primary School from the Müftüler neighborhood where our house was located, in summer and winter, and I also walked to high school from our house in summer and winter. While I was a hardworking student, I did not neglect entertainment and sports. Those who are not from Bitlis cannot know; in my youth and childhood, I played dilor, ağaç birdir, çalo, and also played ball. We even had a private garden where we played ball. I want to bring something to your attention: I want to point out that we played football barefoot so that the shoes of one of our friends playing ball would not tear or get damaged.

I also had a later regretful enthusiasm: I was very fond of cockfighting in the thread market. This is a subject I later regretted. And even one day, my dear friend Erol Evgin knows, there was a rooster wandering around in their garden house in Polonezköy. In our Bitlis dialect, I took some feed in my hand, called it, it came and climbed onto my lap, and I made peace with it. It accepted, and it crowed very beautifully. Erol Evgin witnessed this reconciliation agreement.

Now, I was also doing skiing until a few years ago, because I learned skiing on the slopes of Dideban, and I learned swimming in the Malle arm of the Bitlis stream. Of course, today's youth do not know Malle arm. I was quite good at skiing, both in Turkey and abroad, until a few years ago. I still continue swimming, and every day, summer and winter, I swim for an hour in the morning before breakfast. I am also actively working in my businesses.

Our leading duty, personally or together with any non-governmental organization, is to strive to save this city from this poverty, this helplessness, and the backwardness in other parallel issues. As I have stated before, the state should also help Bitlis and similar poor cities, because in our constitution, the Republic of Turkey is a democratic state and also a social state. The requirement of being a social state is to help such poor and underdeveloped cities.

As individuals who have long carried these feelings, we are doing our best to move Bitlis to a more advanced position both economically and in the field of education. We believe that as a result of these efforts, Bitlis is about to reach a certain level, especially in education. In terms of the people to be educated, we think that women should be subject to positive discrimination compared to men. Let's admit that it is mothers, rather than fathers, who actually raise children, direct them for a certain purpose, and make great sacrifices in this regard. Therefore, educating our current girls, who will be the mothers of the future, training them, and making them have a certain profession is one of our main goals.

The reason we give more scholarships to female students compared to male students among the students who receive scholarships in schools is this. In workplaces, we also give priority to women in terms of hiring. The reason for this is that we think a working woman who contributes to the household income will be in a more effective position in terms of women's rights, and we think that women can allocate a larger share from the family budget to their children. So we give priority to both girls and women. I think this is a good behavior. I expect applause from the ladies.

Now, we also have an effort to keep our young people from Bitlis away from drugs: the chess tournament. We organized some organizations for our young people from Bitlis to learn chess and participate in chess tournaments. This attracted great interest. There was great participation in these chess tournaments we organized both nationally and internationally. We plan to develop this further in the future.

Right now, we are in a fully equipped high school in Bitlis. The students studying at this high school are learning Chinese and English. Some of them go to China in the summer, and some go to England to improve themselves, increase their practice, and get to know the people of that country and learn their cultures. This really gives this high school great importance.

We also made an agreement with a non-governmental organization. This NGO is an NGO founded by Turkish and foreign students studying at the world's famous universities. Members of this organization, Turkish and non-Turkish students from the famous universities I mentioned, came to Bitlis last summer. They spent time with the students in Bitlis, tried to explain what they should do, and provided a kind of guidance. They visited and saw the historical İhlasiye Madrasa, a former university. Next summer, these students will come here again and continue their work.

In addition to Bitlis becoming an education city, studies are also being carried out for it to become a tourist city. The university in our city has been selected as a Tourism Specialization University. The excavations in Bitlis Castle, supported by us and carried out by the relevant experts of our university, will gradually reveal attractive works in terms of tourism. Moreover, Bitlis's stone structures are a tourist attraction center that can be preserved. Among the historical structures, there are mosques, schools, madrasas, El Aman Han, and many other tourist attractions. Taking these into account, necessary agreements have been made for the establishment of an internationally famous brand hotel in Bitlis, where international tourists can stay, and construction will begin next summer.

In terms of supporting economic development, importance has been given to agriculture as well as industry. Hundreds of thousands of saplings have been provided and donated to agricultural enterprises with weak financial power. I know that Bitlis is a city where honest, generous, and hospitable people live, who deserve all these things. I embrace all my fellow citizens with love. I also know that this event organized here under the TEDx umbrella is important. I owe thanks to the people who organized this event, to everyone who contributed, one by one. I once again extend my love and respect to all of you. Goodbye.