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September 28th 1996
Dedeman Istanbul Hotel
Nazire Dedeman
Founder President of Umut Foundation
Speech Text
Dear guests, dear friends
Three years passed over the event which caused the establishment of the Umut Foundation for the Education of Honorable Leaders. Today is the third year of our loss Umut. Three years ago, my son was killed by a weapon which is one of the tools of violence. Therefore, Umut Foundation was established to struggle against any kind and any level of violence and brute force which are resorted everywhere and to contribute to the preference of peaceful means in solving disagreements. The aim of the Foundation is to make an effort on assuring and adopting the rule of law in our country and our regions.
The words rule of law and state of law became concepts which we need to use often. The reason is clear: only things needed are mentioned. The reason of mentioning those concepts often are our desire and passion of living in a fair world. Because one of the preconditions of being a healthy individual and citizen is protecting our belief that the world we are living in is just. Belief in a Just World is an impartial balance scale and a required yardstick point for evaluating the events occurred in our environment. A just world is a world where the people good or bad would get what they really deserve. Believing in the existence of this kind of justice would render life more understandable; it would give us the impression that our future is in our own hand. But a world where justice doesnt exist is a world where people do not have any influence in their destiny and future. And this means that the individual has sink into despair, has submit itself to the hopelessness.
Individuals who believe that justice will never manifest or who saw that justice never manifested would either resort to brute force or wouldnt be able to act because of desperation and would let the resolution of their problems to paranormal force as a last chance of escape. I dont know if you are following me, am I clear? I am mentioning about Turkeys recent political developments.
While we are stating the aim of Umut Foundation as assuring and adopting the rule of law in our country and our regions, we are expressing our belief that individuals who trust to themselves and to the system could be nurtured under the umbrella of the law. And we are doing works which you may find in your Foundations dossier.
Ive got a personal occupation which is not available in this dossier and which I want to mention briefly. It is the continuing law suit of my son Umut and its relation with the Foundations aim. As you all know, the law suit of Umut became a law suit worthy to the public opinion. This law suit became the yardstick point which affected the Belief in a Just World and one of the example events where our impartial balance scale is tested.
We know that the Belief in a Just World is gained by personal observations and by social stories which are spread by word-of-mouth. We learn the results of our actions through our observations. We say they didnt let that person go away, they penalized him/her. Then, if I do the same thing, they will penalize me as well. We say he/she escaped easily, then, it means he/she didnt make a bad thing, so if I do the same thing nothing would happen. We say he/she worked a lot and he/she got what he/she deserved; if I work as much as he/she did then I would get what I deserve. Thus, as a result of our observations, we get the information about what we would get after the things we do.
The law suit of Umut formed this kind of criterion through the printed and visual media in the public opinion. Therefore, the law suit, being no more a detective case, has been put in the balance of the judgment of the judiciary in the sense of community.
I think that I and we should be very careful at this point. I think that the fact that should be followed carefully is not the opinions which are repeated often concerning this law suit such as the cry of a mother or the blood not being remained in the ground, but the clarification of the truths and the event without any occasion to suspicion. Hence, with this effort, I am the advocate of the rule of law.
And I know that I am reflecting the sense of community in this law suit. This event will become a social story which spreads by word-of-mouth in case of a smallest suspicion about this law suit in the sense of community. A story of hopelessness which ends with words like let them go away, Allah will punish them; even the famous Dedeman family did not succeed on finding the truth. I and we need to reinforce the belief of our citizens in a just world; we shouldnt harm, devastate or destroy. In this subject, I invite everybody who has adopted the rule of law to lend a hand.
The reason we gathered here today is the ceremony of thanking those who participated and rewarding those who won with their compositions to our contest Violence and Guns within Youth rather than a commemorative ceremony. More importantly, it is a meeting where we found the opportunity to emphasize once again the importance of the state of law.
Besides lot of activities, from its establishment until now, Umut Foundation encourages the research of the reasons of the fast-growing demand on possessing a weapon in our societys individuals by organizing awarded contests entitled Individual Disarmament. Thus, it is aiming to involve in activities of reinforcing the existence of the state of law by helping to prevent the development of the brute force and the violence.
Our first Individual Disarmament awarded contest was research and analyze contest themed The reasons of Individual armament in Turkey. The winner of the contest was Dear Ali Yılmaz and he is now between us.
The subject of our Individual Disarmament awarded contest in 1995 was, like I mentioned before, Violence and Guns within Youth open to high schoolers. One hundred seventy four students participated from seven regions. At first sight, the participation showed us that preventing violence and assuring peace is the work of women: among those who participated, two thirds of them were girl students. Most of the winners were also girl students. Come on men, pacifism is more masculine than fights; it is time to show you.
When examining the content of the compositions, it is discovered that the sources which legalized weapons and violence were determined very well by everybody. The family, repressive school order, media and socio-economic structure. But when we come to the solution, only one antibody is showed which would eliminate all those reasons: amity.
I would say, lets put resistance next to amity and lets continue to our awarded contests entitled Individual Disarmament. This years contest is in the frame of the slogan Weapon is Not Joking and within the caricature category.
As is known, shooting unconsciously in all occasion beside events such as celebration and amusement has turned to a way of showing enthusiasm in our country in recent years and lots of innocent people lost their life with stray bullets due to this reason.
In order to prevent this developments to become more negative, with the appeal and the lead of Umut Foundation and the contributions of the Football Federation, Turkish Sports Writers Association, Football Referees Association, Professional Footballers Association, the National Team, the authorities of the sport clubs Fenerbahçe, Beşiktaş, Galatasarat and Trabzonspor, a campaign entitled Weapon is Not Joking started. Our caricature contest will be a continuation of this campaign.
When we started the contest themed Violence and Guns within Youth last year, Honorable Nevzat Ayaz, the Minister of National Education, supported it. He is here among us today. I thank him for his sensitivity to this subject. Honorable Bener Cordan, The Undersecretary of the Ministry of National Education, and Honorable Hayri Berk, The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Forestry, are also among us today.
I congratulate our regional winners who will receive their awards and their valuable families, and I thank our dear jurors, Hon. Nail Güreli, Hon. Cahit Can, Hon. İlter Turan, Hon. Mine Tan, Hon. Özgen Acar and Hon. Mehmet Gürkaynak, for their efforts.
Our contest Weapon is Not Joking is realized with the support of the Association of Cartoonists. on behalf of the President of the Association Hon. Canol Kocagöz, all the members of the association and Hon. Jurors who accepted to become a member of the jury, Semih Balcıoğlu, Ferruh Doğan, İrfan Sayar, Necati Abacı, Metin Peker, İlter Turan, Özgen Acar, Mehmet Gürkaynak, Nail Güreli, has honored us.
I thank everybody and all of you who lend a hand to Umut Foundation and its aims. I know that we will grow up with amity and respect and we will strive to be beneficial to our society with the conscious of being a citizen and a nation, to destroy violence and its extreme point fatal WEAPONS, to become a peaceful, just and honorable nation.
I greet respectfully all of you and wish a future just and full of hope.
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Valuable speechmakers, Semih Balcıoğlu, Ferruh Doğan, Mehmet Ali Birand ve İpek Gürkaynak, informed and honored us with their speeches. I thank each of them.
I thank dear Sibel Savacı and Tülay Akınsal for their efforts. I thank Marmara Region Directorate of Ministry of Forestry for their helps and efforts.
This year, we formed the Third Umut Forest in the exit of Istanbul, Kilyos and uskumruköy in commemoration of my son Umut Önal for the purpose of being a symbol of all beauties which will be occurred in our life. We will plant trees in those areas. The act of planting a tree is not symbolizing just the continuation of amity, but it is symbolizing the act of being at peace with the environment. Planting a tree proves the efforts of protecting and developing the balance of the nature and proves the care and love showed to the environment.
Beside the desire of feeling in the heart an earth becoming green with our contributions, based on the wish of the earth and of us to obtain trees, woods and forests which are our rights, I invite all of you to plant a tree in the forest of Umut and to participate to the barbecue with the slogan Everybody has to own a Planted Tree while being in Life also.
I wish once again a future full of hope to all of you.
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