'It is Ibn Fadlan who says so, Mr. Altaylı, not me'

Let us express our gratitude to Prof. Dr. Ramazan Şeşen. He has translated the travelogue written in the 9th century by the Arab religious scholar and traveler Ibn Fadlan into the Turkish language.

In his work, Ibn Fadlan provides extremely important information about the lives, administrations, religions, morals, and customs of the Turks.

One of the many subjects that Fadlan noted with attention and astonishment during his time living among the Turkic tribes was the concept and system of bail and suretyship. He stated that the Turks placed great importance on bail and that they would hold the guarantor accountable for the mistakes made by the person they had vouched for.

The first question was, "Who is his guarantor?"

Cüneyt Ülsever, one of the master pens of the Sublime Porte and a Harvard Human Resources graduate, also wrote the following in his memoirs: "We said let's plan a merit-based human resources system in public institutions under Özal's instructions. But lo and behold, whenever we moved the seat of any bureaucrat in Ankara even slightly, they would take their seat back the next day. We couldn't cope. We said let's do this outside of Ankara. Even when a bank branch manager in Hakkari took his seat back the next day, we gave up and realized that a 'spider-web-based management system' was being used in Turkish public institutions, not a 'merit-based management system.' Even if we touched the furthest point of the bureaucracy, there was an instant light that went on at the center."

After this short introduction, let us come to our main subject.

PROFESSOR CELAL!

Our Professor Celal is, of course, a very famous professor in his academic field. I buy and read the books he writes. I especially point to his book titled "Conversations with Knowledge" as one of the first 10 books that all my students should read, and I make it a requirement. I also ask a question from our professor's book in the exam.

However, our esteemed professor entered the world of tabloid media quickly despite his age. Mr. Altaylı managed this feat. And he did it very well.

We cannot thank Mr. Fatih Altaylı enough for introducing our professor to the Turkish nation and bringing his vast knowledge to the public. It must be a heavenly deed to pass on our professor's ideas to future generations.

Because, the Turkish academy has not yet raised an intellectual like Professor Celal. And it does not look like it will raise one in the next 100 years.

Let us still keep our hope, and let us not make big claims. Because while it was unimaginable for a Turkish academic to win the Nobel Prize in Science, our Professor Aziz made us all proud. He proved that the doctrine we have created since the Tanzimat era is accurate. May God be pleased with him.

Our Professor Celal loved television very much, and as he loved it, he rose up like Pehlivan İmam in Aziz Nesin's novel. However, he could not be like the imam in the novel who got drunk without knowing he was drinking vodka-laced compote and then beat up the bullies who were intimidating the people in the tavern.

As he moved away from his own field of earth sciences, he encountered the complaints of people saying, "What are we doing, Professor?" and "Get a grip." However, our professor never took these complaints into account and continued to hit the nail on the head.

Now, I do not want to anger our professor by writing this here, but he even managed to frighten the average Kemalists, the secular, and the laic people. I cannot say that I did not feel a sense of unease even at the Moda Deniz Club.

One of these outbursts is the statement that "There are no universities in Turkey."

Professor Celal, we had corresponded via e-mail before.

I had written, "Please do not belittle Turkish universities so much." I had said, "These universities you are disparaging are at least as good or as bad as the other schools you compare them to. There is no dramatic difference between them."

You strongly opposed this and hammered away at our universities.

Fair enough.

I do not have enough knowledge or intellectual background to dissuade you from your opinion. Still, I have prepared a short list to remind our professor that belittling Turkish universities so much is baseless.

Turkish engineers and contractors have carried out 500 billion dollars worth of projects such as roads, bridges, airports, dams, railways, and energy facilities in 132 different countries around the world in the last 40-50 years.

Some of their names and the schools they graduated from:

Sezai Türkeş-Istanbul Technical University

Fevzi Akkaya-Istanbul Technical University

Üzeyir Garih-Istanbul Technical University

Şarık Tara-Istanbul Technical University

Erol Üçer- Istanbul Technical University

Ersin Arıoğlu-Istanbul Technical University

İdris Yamantürk-Istanbul Technical University

Nihat Gökyiğit-Istanbul Technical University

Feyyaz Berker-Istanbul Technical University

Necati Akçağlılar-Istanbul Technical University

Sani Şener-Karadeniz Technical University

Erman Ilıcak-Middle East Technical University

If this is not enough, it is on the internet. It is easily accessible. Let him look at the academic staff of universities in America, England, and the Gulf regions. He will see hundreds of academics who graduated from Turkish universities. I will only write 3 of them here. Let our professor's assistants find the others and give them to our professor.

Prof. Dr. Aziz Sancar-Istanbul University, America

Prof. İrem Dikmen Toker-Middle East Technical University-England

Prof. Dr. Canan Dağdeviren-Hacettepe University-America

If these examples, who did not graduate from German, English, or American universities, are not enough, let our esteemed professor look at the great Turkish figure and politician Besim Tibuk, a graduate of Ankara University.

Turkish universities can be considered successful at least for raising Besim Tibuk, who was born in the Fındıklı district of Rize, and bringing him to both our country and the world.

By the way, it should be specifically noted that if Ibn Fadlan were alive, he would send the bill to your guarantor, not to you.