“Social Harmonization Workshop-13 was conducted in İzmir on 25 December 2019 Wednesday with the cooperation of our General Directorate Harmonization and Communication Department and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Deputy Governor Hulusi DOGAN, our Harmonization and Communication Department President Dr. Aydın Keskin KADIOĞLU, Provincial Deputy Mufti Mehmet ÇOBAN, Provincial Deputy Director of National Education Mehmet Tahir BUDUN, Directorate of Religious Affairs Migration and Spiritual Services Department President Bayram DEMİRTAŞ, our Provincial Migration Management Director Hüseyin HAVUZ, along with Provincial Muftiate and Provincial National Education Directorate personnel attended the workshop which was conducted in order to increase the harmonization of the host society with foreigners under international protection and temporary protection, for the personnel of Directorate of Religious Affairs and Ministry of National Education.

Deputy Governor Hulusi DOĞAN who spoke at the opening of the program emphasized that we need to empathize with the subject of migration and said: “In the historical process regarding the migration, Turkey has been a center for the most important migration events in the world. Where they go is unclear, what they will do is unclear, how they will live is unclear… When we put ourselves into these people’s shoes, we need to think how big distress that these people are in. We passed the greatest tests in the world regarding hospitality. However as a nation, we became the best hosts to these people who we think are refugees.”

Our Harmonization and Communication Department President Dr. Aydın Keskin KADIOĞLU, who mentioned the activities organized in harmonization addressed the Religious Affairs and Ministry of National Education personnel: “Education of the migrants has fundamental importance for harmonization activities. Keeping these people in our country within the education system is your duty and your conscientious responsibility. The duty of the Directorate of Religious Affairs and Ministry of National Education has a privileged position. We believe we will better manage this great influx of migration and harmonization process with your contributions and support.”

Directorate of Religious Affairs Migration and Spiritual Services Department President Dr. Bayram DEMİRTAŞ said: We are going through a historical process, our country took on a very important responsibility. As with all important duties, we too, as Directorate of Religious Affairs personnel we are aware of the fact that today we are faced with the phenomenon of migration, we have things to say and contributions to make here.”

Provincial Deputy Mufti Mehmet ÇOBAN said: “The only reason we host and house people who were forced to leave their countries for various vital reasons and migrated to our country notably our Syrian brothers is the verse of ‘Muslims are only brothers’.”

Provincial Deputy Director of National Education Mehmet Tahir BUDUN who spoke at the second session of the program said: “The most delicate subject of our century is education, not only a remedy for ignorance, but for all the misery of the earth. As educationists, subject of every sentence we form is our children. The biggest wounds are inflicted in the little hearts during the migrations happening in front of the whole world. First of all, we need to open our hearts to these children who are trying to take roots in a different climate. We are obligated to salve the spiritual wounds of the children and provide equal education rights under the same conditions without discriminating religion, language, and race.”

Our Provincial Migration Management Director Hüseyin HAVUZ said: “Our province hosts over 170 thousand foreigners, 148 thousand of whom are Syrian and 24 thousand of them are foreigners with residence permits.”

In the program, Migration Expert Ali Rıza BEŞKAT from our Directorate General presented on Social Harmonization of Foreigners and False Facts, Provincial Migration Expert Seçkin YILMAZ presented on Rights and Obligations of Foreigners, Local Level Coordination Mechanisms, Directorate of Religious Affairs Department President Dr. Bayram DEMİRTAŞ presented on The Efficient Benefitting of Foreigners from Religious Services and Guidance Mechanism, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Senior Refugee Protection Assistant Sinan ISIN presented on Harmonization Difficulties of Foreigners, Reasons and Field Observations, Hilal BÜKE and Kadir ALTUNKAYNAK from the Ministry of National Education presented on the Transactions and Processes of Foreigner Students.

Questions and answers moderated by our Harmonization and Communication Department President Dr. Aydın Keskin KADIOĞLU also took place in the workshop which was conducted as two sessions.