The opening ceremony of the memorial statue of Kemal Kurdaş, which was built by his family and students, was held on 15 January 2019 in order to commemorate our former President Kemal Kurdaş who played a key role in the establishment and success of our university.
At the ceremony, Kemal Kurdaş’s daughter, Gülseren Kurdaş gave a speech. Gülseren Kurdaş started her speech stating that the creation of the statue was a very happy and proud event for them and extended her thanks to primarily METU President and then all the people who made efforts in this work. She said that it was Kemal Kurdaş’s students who gave the main support and did planning in the creation of the statue, which was performed by Ersin Özince based on a project of Ayşe Taylan and an idea of Mete Tanrıkut. She stated that the students who provided financing and support to this project are not the students of Kemal Kurdaş, which shows that Kemal Kurdaş is a popular role model beyond his own period; and what is important is to have students he educated today and their contributions to Turkey. She expressed that Kemal Kurdaş loved Turkey and METU, he was an honest man doing the right things; he planted 12 million trees in eight years as a good team member, and created the METU spirit. In return, a group of his students said that they would erect this statue for him after many years of his period and added that:“Students should know that great things can be done in a short period of time, in a skillful and clever way, as a team without looking after benefits. The majority of this university and its infrastructure was made from zero in eight years, by Kemal Kurdaş and his team. A group that didn’t work with him and didn’t even see this development built this statute.”
Ersin Özince, a graduate of Department of Business Administration in 1975, took the floor expressing that when he started studying at METU, it was close to the end of Kemal Kurdaş’s presidency and what bring us together today is METU spirit and its reflection. He added,“The torch of Kurdaş and Kemal Atatürk and of science and wisdom is to be in favor of search and research and to stand with truth, modernism and change”and thanked primarily the METU President and then all the Presidency staff who gave support to the efforts for the erection of Kurdaş statute and expressed that they all have the ownership of the statute. Mentioning the great contributions of Hakan Ersiz, the sculptor, Mr. Özince said they are here to protect both the history and the present of METU Community and added:“METU Community has to make such forward-looking collective work that will help the METU spirit survive in a more professional way. We have to back up our University more strongly. We should be able to make contribution forms that are called endowments by Westerners, that is, self-renewal contribution funds. I think it is the time for such maturity. I would like to express my interest in keeping this group together as much as I can.”
President Prof. Dr. Mustafa Verşan Kök stated:
“Today, we are gathered here for the opening ceremony of this statute built by the family and students of Kemal Kurdaş, who had great services, challenges and achievements in his 91-year life, served as the President of METU during the period of 1961-69 and provided great service to our University and who is always commemorated with love, respect and gratitude. As we all know, the President Kemal Kurdaş took office on November 1961 as the President of METU at the age of 41 leaving the Ministry of Finance… He explains the reason beyond this motive was the realization of his desire to raise an outward generation who is in touch with modern knowledge and technology, and knows at least one foreign language in Turkey. In addition, one of the reasons that attracted Mr. Kurdaş to METU was his struggle to combat the barrenness of Ankara, which disturbed him since his childhood. The first tree festival was made a few weeks after his inauguration and thus the afforestation works became a tradition that has been going on for years and turned into a afforestation festival celebrated with our students, academic and administrative staff and alumni. The afforestation program was deemed worthy of the International Ağa Han Architectural Award in 1995. Today we are proud of METU forest created by our President Kemal Kurdaş. Mr. Kurdaş demonstrated an excellent management skill to transform the resources he received during his office into investment, buildings and infrastructure. He declared mobilization to attract and support the most qualified faculty members, administrative staff and students to METU. He brought many successful scientists within the country and from all over the world to METU. He reinforced the METU culture that emphasizes merit and service and took part and left a big mark in the creation of METU spirit and METU traditions. We, METU community, will protect the legacy of Kemal Kurdaş and carry his name to future generations. We will do this not only as a duty of loyalty to Kemal Kurdaş, but also to protect the history, values and spirit of our University. I would like to extend my appreciation primarily to his children, Gülseren Kurdaş and Osman Kurdaş, and then his valuable family, former students of Kurdaş who supported the construction of the statute through their donations, to our esteemed alumni and the sculptor Hakan Ersiz who made the statute and our Design Office for its design as they contributed to commemoration of him once again in the inauguration of this statue.”
