THOSE WHO PASSED BY YILDIZ
DR ZEYNEL ABİDİN ERDEM
"THOSE WHO FORGET THEIR ROOTS CAN HAVE NO FUTURE..."
GENPA, part of an export and marketing group established by Dr. Zeynel Abidin Erdem in 1965, came into commercial operation in 1978 and in the year 1993 it opened its doors to the world of communication when GSM technology reached Turkey. Adopting the vision of pioneering the expansion of technological products, services and innovations and all elements of modern marketing activities, GENPA has become ERDEM HOLDING’s leader company. Beside being the Turkish distributor of Nokia mobile phones and accessories, GENPA cooperates with Turkcell for the importation, wholesale and retail sales, distribution and technical service of Apple iPhones and accessories of. As a Turkcell distributor GENPA distributes and sells Turkcell campaign devices and mobile phone units, and sells SIM cards, Microsimcards, Prepaid Cards and replacements. Genpa also imports and sells world leader mobile phone accessory brands like Cellular Line, Griffin, Jawbone, Motorola, Energizer, White Diamonds and Gear4.
What would you like to say about being a Yıldız alumni?
I am proud of being a graduate of Yıldız Technical University. I say this with the utmost conviction. All graduates, in particular graduates of ODTÜ and İTÜ, are proud of their schools. I am proud because this university, whose 100th year we will celebrate next year, has gone through many chnages concerning its fundamental rules. This school has progressed every year, step by step. Every year it added new faculties and academic fields to the existing ones. We had very valuable and prominent teachers each of whom left us books and studies. In particular my favorite teacher Professor Doktor Ali Rıza Berkem, and then Prof.Dr. Emin Ulusoy, Emin Günbaran, Nusret Çelem, Orhan Ünsaç… There is also someone I would never forget, a tacher I valued very much and for whom I worked as an assistant, Prof.Dr. Turgut Noyan. We used to teach together at the Technical University, as well at Bosphorus University. In that period I found the opportunity to observe the student structure of many schools. Despite being of many different idelogies, the students at Yıldız Technical University rarely hurt each other; most of te students were from Anatolian origin and their custom and tradition is to treat religion, language and ideologies with dignity and respect. In some school, for instance like ODTÜ oe ITÜ, you see students with rigid attitudes and ideologies who thought they could govern the country. In comparison with European universities, our students are all very respectable in the Republic of Turkey. In Europe students were more relaxed and informal. Applied courses in particular have to be taken seriously, but we weren’t allowed to warn tham because the procedures didn’t involve any enforcement whereas in Turkey, if you deem a student’s behavior in the lab as inappropriate you can send him out of the classroom, impose a penalty or apply sanctions. Thus students become more attentive and ready to learn.
Generally YTÜ students take jobs while they study. What would you like so say about this?
Evening students were more studious but less successful. Human nature requires rest at night, but instead of resting these kids were going to school. We were careful not to put a strain on them and we tried to support them. This learned this attitude from the rector Prof.Dr. Celal ERKMAN. WE called night students “the obligateds”. Our teacher used to say to us “Protect the obligateds, tomorrow you could be in a position of obligation".
Just as today’s terrorist organisations are driven and oriented from the outside, in that period a part of the student body was directed from an external sources. Leftist students used to receive coded messages through a radio channel called Bizim Radyo (Our Radio) and they would act accordingly. Let me tell you a story. I won't give his name, I had a leftist friend who was an active member of the People’s Liberation Army. I was a right-wing extremist, and he was a left-wing extremist. When I was a teacher I never projected any of my convictions to my work. I treated all students equally. One day Mr. Emin GÜLBARAN Beyin had a class. The friend I told you about entered Mr. Emin’s class, knocked hard on the door and said: “Teacher, I am going to organize a forum in the Big Lecture Theatre”. Emin GÜLBARAN was of short stature, a teacher who had returned from the States and worked hard for Turkey, a very knowledgeable and principled teacher. “I won’t send even one student. These kids are here to learn, not for your ideological fight" he said. The student approached the teacher and said: "Look here, teacher. Don't make me throw you out of this window". The teacher left the school on that same day and he never came back. They went and begged him to come back for months because there wasn’t anybody else who could replace him. They meneged to convince him a year later. This time the same teacher’s class was raided by right-wing students. I, again, was present. The student buttoned up his jacket and he said: “Teacher, if you allow it I would like to inform my friends about an issue occuring downstairs” The teacher kicked him out saying “Get out!”. I remember these events very clearly and I remember the students too. Today they have important jobs, executive positions. In fact in our university non of the parties engaged in eccessively extreme activities. They would ask for our permission to organise a boycott and we would explain "Look kids, let's finish the classes this week and then organise a boycott, otherwise the students are going to lose a whole term". They would agree and delay the boycott. In that period the government had lost control, politics had collapsed. Turkey's bearings had broken down. There were of course external powers who were contributing to the situation and events in Turkey had become unmanageable. Mr. Kenan Evren and his team might have done some mistakes, I am not their advocate. They changed the ages of some people on purpose so that they could be hanged. That wans’t a just thing to do but the day after Alevis and Sunnis started to play cards together in the same neighborhood. Kurdish-Turkish, right wing-left wing, they all united. At the time there were days when 37 people were murdered. Who was going to stop that? There is a provision in our constitution which says: if the administration of the goverment is disrupted and if there is no possibility of repair or compensation, if national borders and statal consciousness is under risk, Armed Forces can intervene. This is a very clearly stated authorization. Now they are being criticized but where were all these critics when 37 people were killed in one day? Due to the fact that we were teachers, we couldn’t stay in our own homes. We would stay with our sisters, brothers to escape being killed during the night. But then Turkey was renewed like an unused car and started off on a new road. Those who criticise the government should keep these facts in mind.
Mr. Zeynel Abidin Erdem, what would you like to say about the 100th year? What are the changes that need to be made? I am a member of the Global Advisory Board of a very important school abroad, the George Washington University. My predecessor was Mustafa Koç. I am one of the very few Muslim members. They are also getting ready to celebrate their 100th year but they have a budget of 38 billion dollars. They founded a medical faculty and only the land of the building is worth 1,5 billion dollars. Everything depends primarily on the financial power of the university. If I start to list what our technical university deserves and should do, people will say that we wouldn't be able to finish them during our lifetimes. The first thing to be given priority shoud be the completion of Technopark by Teknical University, with the support given by us and the state. I am not saying this with the purpose of putting pressure on the rector and others concerned with the job. I am simply saying that whatever can be done should be done. That's why’I would like to talk about what can be done instead of talking about my dreams. We have to complete Technopark in our 100th year. We must offer more support to students who come from Anatolia and who are on scolarships. We must push our limits to send more students abroad every year and we must make sure that these students come back to Turkey as university teachers. We would also like to talk about your international activities.
I am following the constitution of my roots. My family are descendants of prophets. In my family nobody speaks with raised voices. Our most valued surces and mechanisms are education, tolerance, peace, prosperity and civilisation. We are all devoted to these principles. We built 18 schools, soup kitchens, sport centers. My brother is building a huge college in Midyat. I am building the Faculty of Economics and Admnistration of the Artuklu University in Mardin. My next plan is to build a very big college in Istanbul, offering education in English. We are following our heritage. We invest in science, knowledge, human life. We all have to be humanitarians, everybody should contribute. You know, when we die we can’t take anything with us. Every 100 years our family puts aside a certain amount for the children and donates all its remaining assets. The foundation has a very big budget and 80% of it is spent for the East. The East needs investments. If we don’t reinforce our Eastern regions, it would be prey to foreing powers who want to capture and rule it. England has adopted a policy of changing the world's geography and causing disputes between other countries through tricks and manipulation. They took Syria from us, they caused separations between peoples saying you are Kurdish, you are Alevi. Our efforts are aimed to reconnect these people with Turkey.
For instance 100 years ago my grandfather Hacı Ali Bey built 23 mills, houses for the governors, mosques and schools, soup kitchens, bridges and raods. Because Turkey’s future lies in human investmen. Our humanitarian side is inherited from our family. When I die I too will leave all I have to the foundation.
About business, your activities encompass many areas, but what about Genpa? Can you tell us about the company’s performance in 2010 and the targets set for 2011?
As always, Genpa completed 2010 with success, because at Genpa profit and loss, honest earnings and dishonesty are never mixed. I told you about our constitution. For instance, we never do unregistered business. I could give you the receipt of a döner meal I ate 40 years ago. Genpa plays an important role in the lives of the Anatolian people. They think, this company is honest, they are not dishonest, they not smugglers, let’s buy from them and benefit from the justly gained bounty. We sell goods to 3600 points. This is abig number and it is the result of trust gained throughout our company’s history.
