WHAT IS ERASMUS?
According to the book Erasmus is the name of the exchange program of university students and university staff in Europe. But actually it is much beyond this definition. So, what is Erasmus?
- It is the dominance of love to hate
- It is the victory of tolerance over hostility
- It is the triumph of peace over conflict
- It is the exhibition of high tolerance of Turkish nation through Turkish students and university staff in Europe, reminiscing the time when Fatih, the Ottoman Sultan, conquered Istanbul and announced that everybody’s life ,property, language, belief, culture would be protected.
- It is a great way of showing Rumi’s call itself, ‘Come! Come again! Whoever, whatever you may be, come!’
- It is the reflection of Turkish hospitality with all its gorgeousness
- It is the meeting of Turkish youth, who are being shaped as a monotype like timbers cut in same sizes in a carpenter’s shop, with the idea that ‘differences are richness’
- It is the hands-on experience of the mentality that ‘Universities are not the places of backward bans, but they are places where freedom of self-conscience, thought and free speech is lived to the last.
- It is providing instructors and university staff with the opportunity to compare themselves with their colleagues in Europe.
- It is the name of the most successful project in the integration of Turkey to European Union.
- It is one of the most attractive symbols of the transformation of a country from a land ‘surrounded by seas on three sides and by enemies on four sides’ into a country where peace and love bridges are set up.
- It is the name of the program to be deemed worthy for the Nobel Prize if it had a physical form.
Dear Erasmus Family, which I feel honored to be a part of,
The most cheerful face of the universities is you. ‘You are the most effective performers of the idea ‘Universities exist primarily to serve students’. The ones to observe the change, confidence and success in students and lecturers that you send and host first, and with its inner pleasure working with high motivation without getting tired is again you.