Geo-ontologically the Balkans falls at the crossroads between the heartlands of Turkey’s Anatolia and Europe.
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The schools have managed to gain the confidence of both locals and foreigners by promoting peace and tolerance, as well as providing a relatively balanced curriculum in comparison with other schools. In this way, these schools have become a number one choice of the people. Among them are the first college built after the collapse of communism, in 1993, Mehmet Akif, which was later renamed Turgut Özal College in Albania; many schools in various cities and towns of Bosnia and Herzegovina under the umbrella name of the Bosna Sema Educational Institutions; Mehmet Akif Colleges, Gulistan Educational Institutions and the International School of Pristina in Kosovo; the International School of Bucharest in Romania and Yahya Kemal Colleges in three of Macedonia’s cities.
The headquarters of the Yahya Kemal Colleges is in the heart of Skopje, right in the center of the city, facing the old Ottoman stone bridge and the newly erected statue of Alexander the Great. An American expat residing in Skopje said, “I choose to send my son to a Turkish school, Yahya Kemal, because they know what they are doing; the school has a well-designed curriculum. It is not ethnocentric, but rather has global elements.” He concluded by saying, “My wife [a Macedonian Christian] and I are quite happy.” In higher education, on the other hand, Turkish companies navigated by both political players and neo-Sufi movements began to establish universities, such as Epoka University in Tirana, the International University of Sarajevo and the International Burch University, both in Sarajevo, and the International Balkan University in Skopje. The International Balkan University’s first graduation ceremony was held last week in the presence of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, where his wife, Emine Erdoğan, presented diplomas to the graduates.
It requires time, perhaps a few decades, for Turkish universities to become successful and ultimately enter the world standards of higher learning, as is the case with any other university in the world. The universities established or backed by the Europeans are going through similar processes and have similar, if not worse, stories.
* Mesut İdriz is an associate professor, doctor and head of the department of political science and international relations and general coordinator of the center for Intercultural Dialogue & Education at Gazikent University.
Published on Sunday's Zaman, 09 October 2011, Sunday
[Note: This is an excerpt. Full text is available in the link provided above]
