The Governor of Konya Mr. Cüneyit Orhan TOPRAK, Head of EU Delegation to Turkey Ambassador Mr. Christian BERGER, MoNE Head Construction and Real Estate Department Mr. Umut GÜR, Head of Construction Works Department Mr. Fatih Mehmet ORUÇ and Ambassadors of 27 EU countries who were in Konya during the ceremony day and a large number of guests  are participated the ceremony in Konya.

“Turkey have never considered separately Syrian children from Turkish children.”

After the welcoming, MoNE Head of Construction and Real Department Mr. Umut GÜR started his speech with stating the conflict in Syria has caused huge humanitarian crisis. “As all of us have witnessed Turkey has faced a constant and extraordinary rate of migration flow from Syria. However, Turkey has made significant and spectacular progress in the meaning of accommodating for this large population.”

GÜR, cleary expressed the perspective of Turkey towards Syrian chrildren by saying “An important part of the Syrian population in Turkey constitutes younger population. Turkey have never considered separately Syrian children from Turkish children and Turkey has tried to ensure that all children living here benefit as much as possible from the existing but limited resources and will continue to do so.”

GÜR also touched on healthy cooperation with shareholders by saying; “Infrastructure projects are hard and can be complicated on-site from time to time. Despite the obstacles, we enjoy productive and collaborative working relationships with our shareholders.” He ended his words by saying; “Today, our school, which will be open 57 schools we have built in the Education Infrastructure for Resilience Project through the World Bank, stands out as the most important concrete output of our project. I would like to express my gratitude to all those who contributed from design to the tender process, from supervision to acceptance, and hope that this place of education will be beneficial to our children.”

“The Governor emphasize education infrastructure need in three words: School, School, School”

Head of EU Delegation to Turkey Ambassador Mr. Christian BERGER said; “Before this, we opened another school in a another city. In there we asked to the Mr. Governor what do you want from the European Union, and Mr. Governor said “school, school, school”. As the EU we are transferring our support in the scope of educational activities especially to Syrian people and their children, who needed to migrate to Turkey.  Education is a very important subject. It starts with preschool education and continues to primary school, middle school, high school, and university education. This education is completed at the university. Education is everyone’s right and should be taken in the best possible way. I would like to thank the Ministry of National Education for being a partner in this matter for so many years. I wish the children going to school to receive high-quality education here.

The Governor of Konya Mr. TOPRAK stated; These days we continue our lives with developments that make us happy. Great disasters and people’s problems affect everyone. Everyone equipped with a sense of humanity suffers from the suffering of a human being. We are the first country affected by the humanity drama in Syria in our south. We could not remain indifferent to the drama of humanity there. We have started to host our Syrian children in our country and this hosting has been going on for 8 years. These people needed to have a job, benefit from health services, and be able to continue their children’s education without interruption. For this, our state rolled up its arms and set out with the intention of conducting these works without any help from anyone. I believe it is very important that we act together on these issues and on human sensitivity. We will open this school with the ambassadors of 27 countries.

 

75-year-old Şerife HARMANKAYA, who donated her land for school construction and is known for her philanthropy in Konya said; “If I had my mind, I would buy more land and give it to the state. I’m so happy, i felt on top of the world. Children will be chirping in this school. If I had my mind in the past, I would have bought more land and gave it to the state and made build more schools. Syrians should also go to school, they are also our siblings, are our children.

After the reciprocal gifts were presented and the ribbon cut, the first bell of the school was rang. The event has ended after the authorities visited the school and have theirs souvenir photo taken.