Sani Şener equals TAV, which equals May 19, 1919

It seems Sani Şener will continue his role at “TAV Airports” only as a partner.

He will, however, continue as the Chairman of TAV Construction.

I couldn't decide whether to be happy or sad.

Considering his contribution to the point Turkish aviation has reached, I couldn't make up my mind.

But while reading the laudatory news, I was reminded of Prof. Dr. Jared Mason Diamond, whom I have mentioned in my lectures for years.

Many of us know him.

Those who don't should learn about him immediately.

He is one of the most important scientists to have ever lived.

He would easily rank among the top ten since the industrial revolutions.

He is an American scientist and a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of popular science books.

Although Diamond was trained in physiology, he is also interested in various fields such as anthropology, biology, ornithology, ecology, geography, and evolutionary biology.

In the lists of the world's top 100 intellectuals created through online reader polls by Foreign Policy from the USA and Prospect from the UK in November 2005 and June 2008, he ranked 9th and 31st, respectively.

As you can see, he is a man of many talents.

Many of us were introduced to Jared Diamond through his book and documentary Guns, Germs, and Steel.

Every year, I order dozens of books and CDs, especially for my master's students.

I still have about 50-60 of his CDs in my library at school to be given to students free of charge.

It's not that they can't graduate if they don't report on his book and documentary; they simply cannot graduate from my program at all.

When you read the book and watch the documentary, it's as if an enlightenment occurs, as if a chip has been inserted into your brain. He has managed to fit millions of years of our history into a book and a documentary.

There is an interesting scene in this documentary.

When the Anglo-Saxons discovered regions like Papua New Guinea, they immediately integrated with the local people. They gave them work.

The most important job was porterage.

They carried the loads and cargo that arrived by ship.

But one of the locals started to wake up slowly.

He began to ask himself the question, “Why does no cargo ever come to me?”

As the cargo business increased, the frequency of his questioning also increased.

“Why does no cargo ever come to me?”

“Why does no cargo ever come to me?”

When I got to know Sani Şener, and as I got to know him better, learning that he built airports in different parts of the world, that he even both built and operated them, and even found the financing himself, and then collected the billions of dollars he spent back “dollar by dollar” to repay the financial institutions he borrowed from, I started asking myself similar questions.

Why can't we think like that?

Why can't we think like that?

Yeşilköy Airport, the place where the first air transport in Turkey began in the early 1900s, became something else entirely under Sani Şener, who took it over in 1997 with the Build-Operate-Transfer model as Atatürk Airport.

Comfort was raised to the highest level.

It became an airport where ordinary people could travel with VIP-level service.

The number of passengers showed logarithmic growth.

Despite the 1999 Gölcük earthquake and economic crises, while the prime minister of the time was rejoicing over a one-billion-dollar loan, Sani Şener found a 300-million-dollar loan from abroad with his personal guarantee during such a time.

After that, this great march could not be stopped.

Tbilisi International Airport and Batumi Airport in Georgia, Zagreb Airport in Croatia, Almaty Airport in Kazakhstan, Ohrid St. Paul the Apostle Airport and Skopje International Airport in North Macedonia, Riga International Airport in Latvia, Medina International Airport in Saudi Arabia, Enfidha-Hammamet International Airport and Monastir International Airport in Tunisia, Adnan Menderes Airport, Gazipaşa-Alanya Airport, and Milas-Bodrum Airport.

And Antalya Airport, which was leased for thirty years until 2052 under the Build-Operate-Transfer model for 7 billion 250 million euros, with 1.812 billion euros paid in advance.

I also heard that at one point, he submitted a bid for the Build-Operate-Transfer tender of New York's LaGuardia Airport together with the famous financial powerhouse Goldman Sachs.

I have also followed in the press that he has lectured at the world's most prestigious universities, such as Harvard University, Columbia University, Anadolu University, and Istanbul Aydın University.

With the support he provided to academia, he even helped impoverished academics benefit from European Union funds and secure research projects worth millions of euros.

In fact, he is one of our first Engineer-Contractors to accept becoming an academic at the “Construction Management Supply Institute,” which was jointly established by the Civil Engineering Departments of Columbia University, Mainz University, and Istanbul Aydın University.

On the other hand, when I got to know the friends working within TAV Construction, I couldn't help but regret why I hadn't worked at TAV instead of the university.

Probably, my ability, which was sufficient for the university, was not quite enough to work at TAV.

In fact, if he wanted to open a university, I have met extremely well-trained, highly educated, and professional people within his organization who could complete the academic staff and easily receive approval from YÖK.

We understand from the news we read in the press that these beautiful works, which have few equals in the world, were not as easy to do as they are written here.

During the construction of Tehran Airport, the sudden entry of Revolutionary Guard tanks onto the apron; the bombing of Tbilisi and Batumi during the Russo-Georgian war; the turmoil in the northern Sahara with the Arab Spring and the occupation of Tunisia and Libya; and the ISIS raid on Atatürk Airport.

In all of these, Sani Şener's investments, airports, and construction company were directly exposed to armed violence.

Sani Şener, especially during the chaos in Libya, while the geography was being turned upside down, instead of sending his managers to the safer Tunisia by private jet, went there himself and transported not only his own company's employees but also the employees of other firms that had been abandoned in the war zone by their companies to safe areas.

Despite all these negative political and social developments, TAV Airports and TAV Construction maintained their place among the largest in the world. They emerged from all these crisis situations not by being harmed, but by growing. TAV and Sani Şener are examples that sincerity, merit, hard work, and honesty will always win.

Whether our geography will raise another Sani Şener, God Almighty knows that; I cannot.

But I know that I came to this world early, but I got to know Mr. Sani Şener late.

May the life of Mr. Dr. Mustafa Sani Şener, who is also a product of the Contemporary-Secular-Nationalist-Revolutionary-Populist Modern Turkey efforts initiated by the Great Atatürk on May 19, 1919, be long and his fortune be bright.