Future leaders prepare for 2023

Young people from universities in Anatolia are meeting with their peers in Forum Istanbul Youth Platform not only to have a say on Turkey’s problems, but also to produce solutions

The only session devoted to youth at the two-day conference series Forum Istanbul was held last week. Titled, “How does the youth prepare for the rigors of Turkey in 2023?” the members of Forum Istanbul Youth Platform were excited to present themselves to the audience for the first time since they organized themselves in 2006. Aiming to increase their own awareness, widen their perspectives, develop themselves and find solutions to their problems, Forum Istanbul Youth Platform managed to bring together 64 students from other universities outside Istanbul.

The fourth issue of their journal “Hedef 2023,” “target 2023” in English, was placed on every desk before the session kicked off. Seeing themselves as the people that will run the country in the future Özlem Özgencil said, “We will be the leaders of 2023's Turkey.” Cansu Ekmekçioğlu added that the critical thing was for peers to come together. Both Özgencil and Ekmekçioğlu come from the “nucleus team” of the platform. Özgencil is the chief-editor for Hedef 2023 journal, while Ekmekçioğlu is the news coordinator. The journal was the first project by the platform. There is also a section in the journal for representatives of Anatolian universities and readers to give a voice to their local problems. “Hedef 2023 has become the voice of the youth,” Özgencil said.

A project for ‘solutions':

The next project of the Youth Platform is a competition among university students to choose the best solution for a national problem that will be proposed by university students. The competitors will first choose from national problems they would like to examine and an expert committee will choose one among them for the students to come up with a solution. The winner will present the solution at the next youth session in 2008's Forum Istanbul.

“It is worth nothing if we only raise problems,” Ekmekçioğlu said, as she explained the details of the project. Another project completed by the platform is the research on rating the sensitivity of university students toward politics. The results of the research were presented at the youth session in Forum Istanbul, as well.

Local meets with Istanbul:

The meaning of Forum Istanbul Youth Platform for the students of Anatolian universities is to widen their perspective by meeting with the “center of events and facts.” Complaining that in Anatolia they are deprived of a cultural and social environment like the one in Istanbul, Anatolian students stressed that they were distant from events and that they could only hear about the facts, whilst their peers in Istanbul experienced them.

“They can compare what they learn in university with what they experience,” Şakir Kök, a student of industrial engineering from central Anatolian Eskişehir said. Kök also believes that students gain self-confidence through these events.

Forum Istanbul will widen the perspectives of students in Kayseri, Demet Taner from Erciyes University said. “I try to tell my friends to attend Forum Istanbul conferences.”  

These kinds of activities are platforms for students to have a say on the country's agenda, Mehmet Baz, another representative of the youth platform from Elazığ noted. Sharing, dialogue and exchange of information is the way he defined the Youth Platform. “This platform brings different opinions together. That is what we need,” he said.

Stating that the mentality of local people affected university students a lot, he emphasized the need for a change in mentality. “Students can do that through their activities,” he added.

Kaynak. TURKISHDAILYNEWS