YÖK Secretary General Batıkan Aksoy discusses cultural power with OMU students

Secretary General of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) Batıkan Aksoy met with Ondokuz Mayıs University (OMU) students at the İhtisas Akademi’26 Samsun Program organized by the Türkiye Youth Foundation (TÜGVA).

The program, held at the Atatürk Congress and Culture Center, was attended by Rector Prof. Dr. Fatma Aydın, Vice Rectors Prof. Dr. Çetin Kurnaz and Prof. Dr. Ayşe Pınar Sumer, AK Party Samsun Provincial Chairman Mehmet Köse, TÜGVA Deputy Chairman Responsible for Universities İsmail Hakkı Karagüzel, TÜGVA Samsun Provincial Representative Assoc. Prof. Dr. Serhat Erail, protocol members, deans, vice deans, and many students.

Rector Aydın: “Cultural power means being able to establish a strong bond between the past and the future”

Speaking at the opening of the program, Rector Prof. Dr. Fatma Aydın said, “We are very pleased to host Mr. Batıkan Aksoy, Secretary General of the Council of Higher Education, who has honored our university to share his knowledge and experience with us on the occasion of the conference on ‘Cultural Power.’”

Expressing that societies that can preserve their civilizational accumulation and carry it into the future can achieve a strong position on a global scale, Rector Fatma Aydın stated, “In the age we live in, not only political and economic balances, but also the ways societies think, their worlds of values, and their visions of civilization are undergoing a major transformation. With the effect of globalization, culture has now become a strategic power that guides, shapes, and creates a sphere of influence beyond being an element that preserves the identity of nations. This transformation has moved cultural diplomacy to the center of international relations and has raised societies that stand out with their language, art, media, education, and capacity to produce ideas, alongside military and economic power, to a determining position. Gains obtained through soft power in the diplomatic field lead states to produce more comprehensive approaches on this issue. The contemporary reflections of the cultural richness possessed by countries open the way for soft power by determining the coordinates of foreign policy. It is becoming increasingly difficult for countries that turn their backs on the cultural heritage they have inherited to find a meaningful place for themselves in the world of the future. From this perspective, the issue of cultural power is the concern of a civilization to be able to construct its own story and to address humanity through its own values.”

“We must raise individuals with high cultural self-confidence who can bring their national and spiritual values together with universal knowledge”

Stating that one of OMU’s fundamental goals is to raise individuals with high cultural self-confidence who can bring their national and spiritual values together with universal knowledge, Rector Aydın said, “In our age, when digitalization is accelerating, cultural production shows its influence across a wide field, from cinema to literature, from academia to social media. Therefore, preserving cultural independence is possible by supporting local thought, an original understanding of art, and qualified academic production. As OMU, we regard raising individuals who can bring their national and spiritual values together with universal knowledge, who think, produce, and have high cultural self-confidence, and striving in line with the goal of a leading country Türkiye, as a national duty. As our President Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has indicated, reviving our culture by reinterpreting it in accordance with today’s needs, raising it up, and carrying it into the future are among the most important responsibilities entrusted to us.”

YÖK Secretary General Aksoy spoke on “Cultural Power”

The main speaker of the program, YÖK Secretary General Batıkan Aksoy, made evaluations on political, economic, and technological transformations taking place on a global scale in his presentation titled “Cultural Power.” Referring to the importance of young people correctly analyzing the changing world order, Aksoy drew attention to the role undertaken by higher education institutions in this process.

Beginning his speech through images of successful people, Aksoy stated that we live in an age in which communication tools have become extremely widespread, and expressed that, in terms of cultural power, it is important by whom and together with which social groups the story is told. Recalling that the Olympics were once seen as an area of competition between countries affiliated with two major power blocs, Aksoy drew attention to the influence of cultural narratives on the orientations of societies.

“Cultural power should be considered together with the concepts of consent and hegemony”

Referring to Antonio Gramsci’s approach to hegemony, Aksoy stated that power is not a structure that can be sustained only through instruments of coercion. Expressing that Gramsci brought the concept of “consent” to the forefront at this point, Aksoy said that cultural power gains strength when dominant value judgments are encoded as the common values of society. Stating that this process is shaped through civil society and political society, Aksoy noted that culture is an important determining field within the relationship between society and the state.

Aksoy also touched upon the understanding of cultural power in the early Republican period and shared Şerif Mardin’s thoughts on the relationship between power and culture with the students. Emphasizing that societies should be at peace with their own histories without being closed to the world, Aksoy stated that self-confidence includes knowing one’s own values while also not being closed to other cultures.

“Culture is a labor that is reproduced every day”

Stating that culture is a field of labor reproduced every day, Aksoy said that merely taking pride in the past is not enough, and that this gains lasting meaning when transformed into production in the present. Expressing that major currents of thought, artistic movements, and technological developments should be followed, Aksoy stated that these developments should be evaluated not with an imitative approach, but in a deep and critical manner.

Stating that it is inevitable that societies unable to protect their own roots will drift under the influence of other cultures, Aksoy noted that cultural power is a horizon that can be built by societies capable of establishing a strong bond between the past and the future and reinterpreting their own civilizational accumulation through the possibilities of the age.

Following his speech, Aksoy answered questions from the students.

İsmail Hakkı Karagüzel: “So far, 35 thousand university students have applied to the İhtisas Akademi project”

TÜGVA Deputy Chairman Responsible for Universities İsmail Hakkı Karagüzel, who took the floor at the beginning of the program, stated that raising young people as individuals with knowledge, awareness, and vision is of great importance for the future of Türkiye. Deputy Chairman Karagüzel said, “As TÜGVA, we continue our work in 81 provinces and 205 universities. Within the scope of İhtisas Akademi, as of today, we are carrying out our protocol process with 72 universities. While continuing our activities all across Türkiye, we strive to embrace every effort that will contribute to what is good, beautiful, and qualified regarding youth. So far, 35 thousand university students have applied to the İhtisas Akademi project that we carry out in line with this understanding. We do not only aim to hold a hall program here. We are trying to build a multifaceted academy environment in which young people are involved in the process not only as listeners, but also as individuals who think, question, produce, and write.”

Serhat Erail: “As the TÜGVA family, we continue our work for youth”

TÜGVA Samsun Provincial Representative Assoc. Prof. Dr. Serhat Erail said, “As TÜGVA, we continue our work for youth in 81 provinces and 605 districts. We carry out activities together with young people in many areas, from middle school to high school, from university to women and family studies, from working youth to TÜGVA Technology support teams. In our Hünerhane and İcathane works, we continue to produce services by acting with this understanding.” Erail concluded his remarks by thanking all employees who contributed to the preparation of the program.

At the end of the program, gifts were presented. The program concluded with a commemorative photograph featuring protocol members and participants.