The Opening of Neva Office was Held with The Participation of Bilal Erdoğan, Chairman of The Ilim Yayma Foundation

The opening of Development Foundation of Necmettin Erbakan University (NEVA) office was held with a ceremony with the participation of President of the İlim Yayma Foundation Bilal Erdoğan, our Rector Prof. Dr. Cem Zorlu, Governor of Konya Vahdettin Özkan and Konya Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Uğur İbrahim Altay.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Governor of Konya Vahdettin Özkan who mentioned the importance of making such an opening in Konya, the center of science and wisdom, said, “When foundation is mentioned, the most important institutions in our civilization history and in the construction of our civilization come to mind. When we look at our history, the most common and most effective services related to all public services were carried out through foundations. Especially when it comes to science, when it comes to wisdom, the growth of scholars, sages and professors occurred in this climate and atmosphere. One of the most important representatives and cities of this is Konya. The scholars and sages of Konya were brought up in the atmosphere of this foundation, in the spirit of the foundation. Making this sustainable today is of course one of our most important mission areas. Alhamdulillah, our state, our government, provide all kinds of institutional support to our 81 provinces with their physical infrastructure and universities. However, this support is another support. The support of the heart, the desire for ingenuity, this touch that comes from the hearts and minds of the people who are given freely is something different. Its permanence is different. This is also suitable for Konya. It is much more meaningful and important to do this together with civil institutions such as the İlim Yayma Foundation. It is the mission of all young people from Konya that this activity is carried out in addition to the community, volunteering and the public. May it be beneficial. May it bring blessings and ingenuity to our university.”

Konya Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Uğur İbrahim Altay said, “Konya is a capital city. It is a city that continues this tradition in education as well. It is one of the important student cities of Turkey with 120 thousand students in its five universities. We are proud of all our universities. On the one hand, while the buildings are being built, the scholarship of our students and academics, especially with NEVA, will make a very significant contribution to the quality of education. We thank the philanthropists of Konya. Hopefully, the money they give will make a significant contribution to increasing the education level and international success of our universities. I wish the opening of our foundation will be good. We welcome Bilal Erdoğan, who honored our opening, with whom we are very pleased to host him in Konya today, and greet you all with respect and affection.”

Our Rector Prof. Dr. Cem Zorlu stated that they are striving to make NEÜ a university known for its quality in Turkey and in the world, and said, “There are many universities with foundations that have achieved significant success in Turkey and in the world. For this, we took action with our friends, and decided to establish one and established our foundation. Our main goal is to increase the quality of education by providing some academic support to our students and faculty members. In this context, we started our activities this year; thus we gave awards and we started giving scholarships. We started to provide need scholarships, but our main goal in this regard is success scholarships and thematic scholarships. We bring foreign students from abroad by giving international scholarships. We offer overseas opportunities and project opportunities to our academically successful academics. With the opening of our foundation and with the support of Konya, Necmettin Erbakan University will reach very good points. I hope our foundation will be the biggest supporter in this regard. I would like to thank again Mr. Bilal Erdoğan and all the participants for their presence. I pray to Allah that the opening will be beneficial.”

Emphasizing that the tradition of foundations in Turkey should be developed and continued, Bilal Erdoğan, President of the İlim Yayma Foundation, said, “We are very happy to be in Konya, as it is every time we come. Our foundation tradition is an institution that the West, especially the United States, continue at a high level, especially to support such educational activities. We have to inherit this institution again, continue it, and go beyond. There are universities in the West that are maintained with the revenues of foundations with great financial means, and although there are public universities, there are universities that carry out sectoral studies with the support of companies, on the one hand, and universities that provide additional services to the university with their own foundations and the returns of their own savings. These are university foundations at a high level, with huge sums... Actually, this is what we call as foundations. If we are claiming to take over the civilization watch in our country, if our universities are to be at the center of walking towards this goal, then we can provide such financial means of our universities, opportunities for research outside of current expenditures, especially for supporting successful students in need, through these large foundations.

Erdoğan said, “I hope the Development Foundation of Necmettin Erbakan University will contribute to Necmettin Erbakan University, and a truly beautiful education city like Konya, to do world-class work. Thank you to all the contributors and supporters. I would like to thank our university rector for taking the lead. In fact, we have to expect from our universities, from these educational institutions, to tire them, to force them, to pressure them. These foundations will be the mediators of this. This is not about coming to the foundation and supporting it blindly. What support will we provide to this foundation? In the end, what kind of contributions will this university make to the society, ummah and country? Hopefully, NEVA will support our university, our youth and our generations, provided that we can see this as well. Thanks again to all those who contributed. May it be good." he said.

After the speeches, the Necmettin Erbakan University Development Foundation Office was opened with prayer and ribbon cutting. After the opening, a meeting of the board of trustees of the foundation was held.