GRADUATION SPEECH 2019

Mr. Prime Minister, Honourable Minister of Tourism, the President and Members of American Turkish Business Development Council, Respected Turgut Özal, the rector of Bahçeşehir University Prof. Dr. Zafer Ağdelen, Head of Higher Education Department of Ministry of Education Ziya Öztürkler, Honourable Rectors and Administrators, Members of the Press and Dear Guests,

Welcome to the 33^rd Graduation Ceremony of Girne American University.

The brightness we see at birth which we also call “coming into the world”, our first dawn, first light into life, the bright dawn of leaving the holy mother womb, is such a holy brightness that we will never be able to experience again in our lives.

This is perhaps why we were not endowed with the remembrance of this moment. So that it will never be compared to any other brightness, awakening or enlightenment in our quest of life…

Please look at your mothers for a few seconds, whether they are present here or not, with uppermost sincerity…

And thank them for this first dawn.

And our fathers, dear fathers,

Our fathers, these great monuments who convinced themselves that the only best and brightest opportunity in their lives is your birth, and who actually raise the “child inside them”… Our fathers…

And now, let’s look at them, our fathers, wholeheartedly, with our sincerest and most grateful look, no matter where they are…

And tomorrow morning you will have e new dawn…

This dawn will be very different from others. With this dawn you will finally awaken to the first phase of the similarities of the lives of your parents who just offered you your first dawn. Your journey of life in now yours…

And all of a sudden, years later, while listening to perhaps a similar speech, you will find yourself sitting in places that are currently reserved for your family.

And in those years, your school, your university, which will grant you with diplomas in a short while, will certainly reach its 50^th anniversary…

And of course… this will not be the last.

Dear Graduates,

Let the sea and immenseness you see behind me whisper to your mind “Your limits are confined to yourself”; let your inner goal be infinity.

You are about to leave the seashore you see behind me and his country.

Let these shores always remind you of this country of holy olive, laurel and myrtle trees.

The Graduates of Girne American University,

You have reached the “DAWN OF THE EAGLE”

With the wish of togetherness of all our graduates form the first one to the last…

Please stand up in order that all the guests at this ceremony can see.

Now here, what we call “darkness” is just under our feet.

As the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Memduh Erdal, who is not among us today, always says: “I wish your future to be bright, as bright as the rich blue sky of our beautiful Cyprus.

In the capacity of the Founding Rector and before our academic staff I wish all the best with your graduation.

With the breath of the “Dawn of the Eagles” we send you to the future. If you have the breath, you have a range to fly up.