As part of the events marking the 103rd Anniversary of the Adoption of the Independence March, the 109th Anniversary of the 18 March Çanakkale Naval Victory, and the Commemoration of Our Martyrs, the Faculty of Education of Hasan Kalyoncu University (HKU) organised a conference programme with the theme “The Essence of the Turk, the Word of Akif”.
The programme began at the HKU Law Amphitheatre with a moment of silence for our martyrs, the recitation of our Independence March, and the screening of the documentary “Mehmet Akif Ersoy and the Martyrs of Çanakkale” prepared by TRT. It was attended by HKU Rector Prof. Dr. Türkay Dereli, Vice Rectors Prof. Dr. Gül Rengin Küçükerdoğan and Prof. Dr. Mehmet Lütfi Yola, Dean of the Faculty of Education Prof. Dr. Şener Büyüköztürk, Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences (FEASS) Prof. Dr. Hanifi Aslan, Head of the FEASS Department of Political Science and International Relations Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Keser, Asst. Prof. Dr. Sakine Hakkoymaz of the Department of Primary School Teaching, Faculty of Education, academic staff and students.
During the programme, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Keser, Head of the FEASS Department of Political Science and International Relations, who gave the presentation titled “Mehmet Akif Ersoy and the Spirit of Çanakkale”, said: “Our heroic Mehmetçik soldiers, who wrote history in the Battle of Çanakkale, and Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Kemal, who went down in history as the hero of Anafartalar, have become symbols together with our national poet Mehmet Akif Ersoy, who put the whole picture of the victory into words. It is also a pleasant twist of history that both the writing of our Independence March, which Mehmet Akif dedicated to our heroic army, and the Çanakkale Naval Victory took place in March, on dates close to each other. Starting from this point, we prepared an integrated conference presentation this year.”
After the presentation, in which he shared glimpses from the life of our Poet of Independence Mehmet Akif Ersoy, the events that took place while the Independence March was being written, and his important observations on the Çanakkale Naval Victory, HKU Rector Prof. Dr. Türkay Dereli presented a gift to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Keser. At the end of the programme, copies of Mehmet Akif Ersoy’s book Safahat were given to the students as gifts.
