The Çaykara Model

Modern Turkey raised new generations in the aftermath of the Ottoman Empire.

Turkey's population at the time the Republic was proclaimed in 1923 was approximately 13-14 million.

The first official census of the Republican era was conducted in 1927, and the country's population was determined to be 13,648,270.

Turkey's population, which was 18 million in 1945, increased by 2 million in a short time, reaching 20 million in 1950.

According to the results of the general census conducted on October 25, 1970, Turkey's population was 35,605,176.

Today, there are over 100 million Turkish citizens, including those living abroad.

While this dramatic increase was taking place, we could not protect all of our children.

The state remained helpless.

We lost some of them to all sorts of organizations.

We suffered great damage from these organizations in the 70s and 80s.

The most crowded and effective of them were those who bombed us on July 15.

Unfortunately, Republican governments could not shape the rapidly growing population as they wished.

Because they did not build enough dormitories and did not provide sufficient scholarship opportunities, problematic organizations took our children from our hands.

They extinguished their lives.

Children of families who did not have a regular income, lived in towns, and made a living from agriculture and animal husbandry were the main targets of these organizations.

However, there were some who thwarted the plans of all these predatory organizations on behalf of their own children.

The people of Çaykara.

This town, located 100 kilometers away from Trabzon among the mountains, is famous for the importance it places on education.

A young person with a Çaykara identity will neither be left stranded nor go hungry.

The Çaykara association provides every young person studying with much more financial support than what the state provides.

By building dormitories near universities, they prioritize housing Çaykara children.

They do all of this with the donations of Çaykara businessmen.

Recently, one Çaykara businessman made a non-refundable donation of 50 million, and another 30 million liras to the Çaykara Association at once.

I am not even mentioning the other million-lira donations made.

Perhaps the reason why Çaykara is the region that lost the fewest students to the Fetullahist Terrorist Organization is that Çaykara businessmen take care of their children through the non-refundable donations they make.