Our President Attended the TURKEN Foundation’s Traditional Dinner

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, while in New York for the 74th United Nations General Assembly meetings, attended the traditional dinner organized by the TURKEN Foundation, the joint U.S.-based establishment of TÜRGEV and the Ensar Foundation.

The dinner, held at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, was also attended by TÜRGEV Chairwoman Dr. Fatmanur Altun, TURKEN Foundation President Behram Turan, TURKEN Foundation General Coordinator Taşkın Bumin Ayrancı, executives from the Ensar Foundation, board members of the foundations, leading Turkish and American businesspeople, community leaders, and representatives of civil society organizations.

In his speech, President Erdoğan stated:

“We have transformed Turkey into a veritable education hub for students from friendly and brotherly regions. We currently host 168,000 international students, both scholarship recipients and self-financed. Our goal is to increase this number to 350,000. God willing, we will thus become one of the top five countries in the world in terms of hosting international students.”

President Erdoğan described TURKEN as the flagbearer of the deep-rooted charitable foundation (vakıf) tradition of our civilization in the United States, adding:

“Our foundation makes us proud with its projects and work in various fields of education. I congratulate each and every one of our brothers and benefactors whose hard work contributed to this success, and I pray that God be pleased with them.”

Highlighting the importance for young people to engage in interdisciplinary work to adapt to the times, he continued:

“At every opportunity, I emphasize that you, as the guarantors of our future, must receive a good education. It is important for our youth to develop themselves not only in their main field of interest, but also in areas ranging from language training to social development projects, from politics to civil society activities. Today, specialization in a single field—except for certain professions—has lost much of its value. We see that people who are both experts in their own field and able to work across different areas of life are in higher demand. Organizations like TURKEN offer you students a fertile environment where you can learn about life and contribute to others as well as yourselves. It is up to you to make the best use of these opportunities for your own future and for the future of our nation.”