Our President Prof. Barış Tan Met OzU Community at the Republic Festival on October 30

Özyeğin University President Prof. Barış Tan met with the members of the OzU Community at the Republic Festival held on our campus on October 30, 2024. Organized by the Dean of Students Office in collaboration with Idealistic Legal Professionals, Social Umbrella Club, OzU Dance, Ozyeğin ILSA Law Club, Atatürkist Thought Club, OzU Cuisine, Music Club, Chamber Orchestra and Western Music Club, the festival started at 7 p.m. with the Republic March, which has now become an OzU tradition. OzU students, academics, and staff marched with torches from the dormitory area to the Student Center forum area, where they enthusiastically sang the Turkish National Anthem in unison. President Prof. Barış Tan delivered the opening speech of the festival with the following remarks:

“Welcome to our Republic Festival, which has been meticulously prepared for our Republic as we welcome its second century and celebrate its 101st anniversary. At Özyeğin University, we are proud to protect the values and legacy of the Republic that our Great Leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk entrusted to future generations. We aim to provide solutions to global problems through our innovative, transformative, and personalized educational approach and programs with our graduates who will become responsible global citizens and future leaders. In addition, in line with our vision of improving the quality of life of our society and then the geography we are in and contributing to a sustainable world, we focus on becoming an entrepreneurial research university with a high scientific, societal, and economic global impact through our many research programs and collaborations with all stakeholders. In this way, it is among our foremost missions to be recognized, preferred, and emulated as an example worldwide, just as our Great Leader would have wanted.

As Özyeğin members who have internalized Atatürk’s wish for us always to look forward and higher, to work harder, to produce, to be more ethical and beneficial to the environment, we promise to protect this legacy relentlessly, with hope, love, unity, solidarity, and our 101 years of excitement.

I want to thank Dr. Nilüfer Dalay, the Dean of Students and her team, as well as all our staff, students, and all ÖzÜ members who contributed to the preparation of our festival. Happy festival!”

Prof. Özlem Yenerer Çakmut, Dean of the Faculty of Law, took the floor after President Prof. Tan’s speech and emphasized the importance of the Republic and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s idealistic and ahead-of-its-time revolutions for the equality of women and men in all areas of society. The festival included music concerts, gastronomy events, and dance performances organized by our student clubs.