Ataturk Commemoration Event Held at the Faculty of Communication
On the occasion of the 85th anniversary of Atatürk's death, a commemoration event was organized by the Faculty of Communication and 3-2-1 Recording Film and Cinema Society. In the event held at the Hierapolis Conference Hall, Prof. Dr. Mithat Aydın made a speech titled "Atatürk: A Liberator and Revolutionary Leader".
Lecturer before the conference. Assist. Okan Toker prepared a video clip with archive images from the National Struggle and the first periods of our Republic, and at the same time, the music selection was made by him. Speaking before the video clip screening, Lecturer. Assist. Okan Toker said, "Atatürk will not end with telling, it will not end for generations. What I wanted to explain in the 15-minute video is that such a leader will not come again, I tried to explain this." The video clip included photos and videos about Thessaloniki where Atatürk was born and his youth, the War of Independence and Atatürk's years as a commander, the revolutions made and his efforts to grow in every field and the funeral ceremony. In the preparation of the video clip, which took about 3 years to prepare and consists of four parts, Ordu Photo Film Center archive, Abdurrahman Toraman's private archive and Lecturer. Assist. Okan Toker's private family private archive was utilized.
"It was the construction of a nation, a country for which Atatürk fought and struggled"
Prof. Dr. Mithat Aydın said, "We are really a lucky generation. Because we are a generation that has seen the first century of Atatürk and the Republic of Turkey, which is one of the greatest achievements that history has witnessed, and we are a generation that has passed into the second century. It is not only a civic duty but also a human duty to express our feelings of gratitude and gratitude both as a Turkish citizen and as a member of humanity while trying to truly understand the great Atatürk and his work.
Because what Atatürk fought for and struggled for was the construction of a nation, a country. It was a great work that he carried from one era to the next, but what he achieved was also an achievement of universal value."
"We do not know Atatürk's revolutionary character properly"
Prof. Dr. Mithat Aydın stated that he was the editor of a tribute book specific to the 100th anniversary and that he chose the title of the chapter he wrote in the book as "A Savior and a Revolutionary Leader". Aydın expressed the reason for choosing this title with the following words: "Because we know the military and political genius of the Great Atatürk, but we do not know his revolutionary character that brought a nation into existence. Let us not forget that no matter how heroic a nation is, no matter how great military and political victories it has won in the past, if it does not have a place in the civilized world, at some point these may not mean anything. No one can claim that the underdeveloped societies of the world and those who are today trampled under the feet of civilized countries are cowards. What makes us different in the Middle East today is our civilization, our civilizational achievements. We owe this to a great extent to our founder and savior, our constructive leader Atatürk."
"Either Independence or Death!"
Prof. Dr. Mithat Aydın stated in his speech that the national struggle was unprecedented in the history of the world because at the end of a world war, the legitimate government surrendered, signed an armistice agreement and the Treaty of Sevres. But the nation, a handful of believers, Atatürk and his friends rejected the outcome of the world war with the motto "Either Independence or Death!" and waged a war of honor, freedom and independence. Giving examples from the struggle of Atatürk and his friends in a situation where everyone wondered when the Ottoman Empire, which everyone called "Sick Man", would die and end, Prof. Dr. Aydın stated that even if it was not occupied, there was an attempt to prevent the congress from convening in Erzurum, one of the places where the representatives of the occupation forces were located. Prof. Dr. Aydın emphasized that the states that became members of the United Nations after the war became members voluntarily, but the only country that became a member by invitation was Turkey, and emphasized that from the position of "Sick Man" to the position of "Chosen Country". In the continuation of his speech, Prof. Dr. Aydın shared the following about Ward Price, who was the first foreign journalist to meet Atatürk after the War of Independence and described Atatürk as "the greatest genius of our time": "When Ward Price wrote his book 'I Know These Dictators' about Mussolini and Hitler, when he was asked to include Atatürk in his book, he said, 'Atatürk is not like any of them. He is a unique man. With a free order that dictators could not tolerate, he did things that democracies could not and could not accomplish. In history, such men have given their own names to their eras."
At the end of the event, which attracted a great deal of attention from the students, Dean of the Faculty of Communication Prof. Dr. Ali Soylu thanked Prof. Dr. Mithat Aydın, who made the conference speech, and Vice Dean Assoc. Prof. Dr. Osman Çalışkan, who prepared the video clip show. Assoc. Okan Toker, who prepared the video clip show, each presented a plaque of appreciation. In his thank you speech, Prof. Dr. Soylu said, "Mithat Aydın's speech really left a good taste in our minds. We also got this taste visually, we saw video archive images that we have never seen before. We would also like to thank our professor Okan." The event ended after the photo shoot.
