YDO alumni: “We all owe a debt to our school.

The 137th Fishermen’s Day of the Istanbul Technical University (ITU) Maritime Faculty was held at the school’s Tuzla Campus. During Fishermen’s Day, ITU Rector Prof. Dr. İsmail Koyuncu, along with Captain Salih Zeki Çakır, President of the Chamber of Shipping of Turkey (DTO), Captain Mustafa Can, Member of the Board of Directors of DTO, and Muhammet Erdoğan, President of Istanbul Port, attended alongside representatives of civil society organizations, students, and families.

During the ceremony, commemorative medals were awarded to those celebrating their 40th, 50th, and 60th graduations. The appointment of Prof. Dr. Özcan Arslan, an alumnus of the ITU Maritime Faculty, as the dean of the faculty was met with prolonged applause.

Speakers at the event stated:

Prof. Dr. Özcan Arslan, Dean of the ITU Maritime Faculty: “I am aware of the responsibility.” “Today, I am filled with great happiness and pride. It is a joy for me to address you from this podium as the acting dean of the Istanbul Technical University Maritime Faculty, which I am proud to have been a student, graduate, and teacher of. I am fully aware of the responsibility and magnitude of this position. I thank all the directors, deans, teachers, and staff who have contributed and continue to contribute from the Naval School of Leyl-i Tüccar Kaptan Mektebi, the School of Maritime Navigation, to the ITU Maritime Faculty. It is our greatest duty to remember and honor everyone who has laid a brick upon this institution. This institution is so deeply rooted and successful that it has produced many successful captains, chief engineers, seafarers, statesmen, bureaucrats, shipowners, ship operators, academics, and the most successful individuals in every aspect of maritime from the past to the present, shaping Turkish maritime and Turkey itself. “We are on the world stage.” With limited resources, our faculty carries out highly qualified European Union projects, TÜBİTAK projects, IAMU projects, and sectoral projects. Our professors are achieving respectable positions internationally with their high-impact publications in prestigious journals. According to the list of the world’s most influential scientists by Stanford University, ITU ranks first among the universities from Turkey on the list. In this list, while 1,150 scientists from Turkey are included, 50 names are from ITU, and 2 of our faculty members are from the Maritime Faculty. Our students are employed by prestigious ship management companies in Turkey and worldwide immediately upon graduation. Our professors and students receive numerous awards. Our academic success will continue to grow every passing day. The laboratory and cafeteria building, named after the late Captain Altay Altuğ, a beloved figure who passed away on November 23, provided by Captain Altay Altuğ and his family, has been inaugurated in our faculty. Shortly, we will all enjoy our traditional Fishermen’s Day meal in the new cafeteria. This is an important step for the transformation our faculty needs, and this transformation will continue with the support of the entire maritime community. On this occasion, I remember our beloved Beybabam, Captain Altay Altuğ, with gratitude and reverence once again.

Our university’s senate decision dated December 9, 2021, has named the Gemi Makinaları Laboratory located in the laboratory and cafeteria building constructed by Captain Altay Altuğ and his family after our esteemed professor Fahrettin Küçükşahin. I wish him a healthy and long life.

“Sparks, you’ve arrived; you will become fire.” Here, the seafarers are here, our graduates are here; look, seafarers of 40 years, 50 years, 60 years are standing side by side like gems. Look at the stands; our bright young seafarer students are watching us. Years later, they too will be arranged here like gems. They came to us as treasures from their families; as we refine them, they will turn into gems. The more beautifully we work these gems, the more valuable they will become. For this, it is necessary to develop our building infrastructure, education and technology infrastructure, and academic infrastructure.

Today, our Rector Prof. Dr. İsmail Koyuncu and all of our rectory, the Chamber of Commerce of the Sea, GEMİMO, our Maritime Federation, our Graduates Association DEFAMED, our Graduates Foundation DEFAV, Turkish Captains Association, Turkish Pilot Captains Association, maritime NGOs, and our community are with us like never before. To elevate our faculty to the highest point in terms of infrastructure, technology, and human resources, and to process our student treasures in the best possible way, we need your support more than ever. I sincerely believe that this community’s support will be greater than ever before. With your support, I promise to work harder than anyone else as a graduate of this school and a member of this community to see a more advanced faculty at each Fishermen’s Day.

We will work harder to make seafaring the national ideal of the Turks, just as we are guided. Support us so that our student siblings, who came as treasures, become gems; they came as sparks, let them become fire; they came as drops, let them become the sea. May they all be strong sailors who shape the future as they did in the past and take their place in these ranks.

Captain Ufuk Teker, President of the İTÜ Maritime Faculty (YDO) Graduates Association (DEFAMED): “Beybaba symbolizes taking care” “We are honored to host you on the traditional Fishermen’s Day as İTÜ DEFAMED. Last year, due to pandemic conditions, our Fishermen’s Day, which was interrupted, will present our awards collectively to our graduates from the year 1980 who did not receive their awards in their 40th year and our graduates from the year 1981 celebrating their 40th years this year. Forty years, no easy feat. Congratulations to you, dear elder brothers who have navigated and managed ships from ocean to ocean, away from their families, without seeing their children grow, sailing the world seas and planting flags. Congratulations on your efforts, sweat, knowledge, and skills. I also want to respectfully commemorate our beybaba Altay Altuğ captain who left us this year. When we ask ourselves who Captain Altay is and what he symbolizes, he actually symbolizes the graduates who take care of our school under the title of fatherhood. He symbolizes choosing our graduates from among equals. He not only made the largest donations in the history of our school but also supported our school silently in a modest manner, nurturing us and feeding us, and keeping our spirit of solidarity alive. Salute to our beybaba who has carried the torch of solidarity until today. As graduates, we will march confidently, embracing what he taught us, along the path he opened.”

“We are ready to assist.”

“Our İTÜ Maritime Faculty campus in Tuzla, despite occasionally limited resources, strives to provide top-level education within the evolving maritime regulations to train our student siblings for Turkish maritime. I respectfully greet all the teaching staff, who have left deep impressions on all of us, working diligently to fulfill all the requirements of developing maritime education within our faculty. As the graduates’ society, we are organized to utilize all our resources to support our school, which is the starting point for all of us, in every aspect. I would like to declare that we are ready, along with our community and İTÜ, to meet the needs and requirements of the maritime faculty.”

“We will provide mentoring.”

As the Graduates Society, we will soon launch our mentoring training center, which is allocated to us at the entrance of our school’s new dormitory building, where we can be closely involved with our students. In this center, we will have the opportunity to bring together our students and graduates and share the technical knowledge necessary for success with our student siblings. Additionally, we will be stationed to learn about and fulfill the needs of our student siblings firsthand. On November 29, announced by YÖK, our school’s new dean is Prof. Dr. Özcan Arslan. He has started his duty as our school’s first graduate dean. We wish him success. I also want to respectfully mention our previous deans who served in our school. In this context, I would like to reiterate in your presence that we will develop the YDO spirit by serving as a bridge between the faculty administration, our student siblings, and you, esteemed graduates.

President of the İTÜ Maritime Faculty Graduates Social Aid Foundation (DEFAV), Eng. İlker Meşe:

“Our goal is to train academics.”

As the president of the İTÜ Maritime Faculty (YDO) Graduates Social Aid Foundation, or briefly DEFAV, I want you to know that we are experiencing a very emotional day. I would like to share this with you. Many of us know that the story of our foundation began with the Gündüz Aybay Scholarship. This scholarship, which started with Gündüz Aybay, Levent Akson, and Ahmet Ağaoğlu, had one single purpose: to train academics. Our graduates were avoiding academic work due to financial constraints after going to sea, or even if they wanted to engage in academic work, they were returning to sea life due to financial difficulties. Besides meeting the needs of our graduates, efforts to train academics had to continue, and as a result of these efforts, our foundation was established in 1995. After that, our assistance suddenly gained momentum, and as a foundation, we started easily meeting the requests for academic scholarships through both donations and the income from our events.

“We are all witnessing the results together.”

I want to read a brief paragraph from a speech I made at the Ordinary General Assembly on June 21, 2005, exactly 10 years after the foundation of the foundation. “During this period, our foundation continued to make Gündüz Aybay Academic Seafarer Training scholarship payments, providing scholarships to 13 colleagues, including 8 doctoral and 5 master’s studies. Additionally, the visa, travel, and accommodation expenses for one of our academic scholarship recipients attending training abroad were covered.” Today, we are all witnessing the results of these efforts together. Yes, I would like to congratulate our maritime faculty’s first graduate dean, Özcan Arslan. Dear dean and other academic colleagues produced by our school, we are proud of you and thank you very much for showing us these days with great patience. I also extend special thanks to İTÜ Rector İsmail Koyuncu and İTÜ Secretary General, Rector’s Advisor Ali Deniz, who have always believed in us and shown their support. As I told them, our community will continue to support as before and will continue to elevate our school as the locomotive of the Maritime community. You can be sure of that.

Our university’s senate decision dated December 9, 2021, named our esteemed colleague Fahrettin Küçükşahin in the Ship Machinery Laboratory located in the laboratory and cafeteria building built by Captain Altay Altuğ and his family. I wish him a healthy and long life.

“Spark, you came, you will be fire.”

Here, the seafarers are here, our graduates are here, look, seafarers of 40 years, 50 years, 60 years side by side like jewels. Look at the stands, our bright young seafarer students are watching us. Years later, they too will line up here like jewels. They came to us as gems from their families and will turn into jewels as they are processed. The better we process these gems, the more valuable they will be. Therefore, it is necessary to develop our building infrastructure, education and technology infrastructure, and academic infrastructure.

Today, our Rector Prof. Dr. İsmail Koyuncu and our entire rectorate, our Chamber of Maritime Commerce, GEMİMO, our Maritime Federation, our Alumni Association DEFAMED, our Alumni Foundation DEFAV, Turkish Captains Association, Turkish Pilot Captains Association, Maritime NGOs, and our community are with us like never before. We need your support more than ever to elevate our faculty to the highest level in terms of infrastructure, technology, and human resources, and to process our student gems in the best possible way. I wholeheartedly believe that this community will provide more support than ever before. With your support, I promise to work harder than anyone else as a graduate of this school and as part of the community to see a more advanced faculty on every Fish Day.

We will work harder to make seafaring the national ideal of the Turks, as we are guided. Support us so that our student brothers and sisters who came as gems become jewels; those who came as sparks become fire; those who came as drops become the sea. May they all be strong seafarers who shape the future as they did in the past, and may they take their place in these ranks.

President of the ITU Maritime Faculty (YDO) Alumni Association (DEFAMED), Captain Ufuk Teker:

“Beybaba symbolizes taking care”

“We are honored to welcome you on what we call ITU DEFAMED day at our traditional Fish Day. In our Fish Day, which was interrupted last year due to pandemic conditions, we will collectively present our awards to our graduates of 1980 who did not receive their awards in the 40th year and our graduates of 1981 who celebrate their 40th year this year. Forty years is not easy. Happy Fish Day to our dear brothers who have been seafaring, navigating and commanding ships from ocean to ocean, far from their families, without seeing their children grow, hoisting flags on world seas; health to your efforts, sweat, knowledge, and skills. This year, I would also like to respectfully mention our beybaba Altay Altuğ captain, who passed away among us. When we ask ourselves who Captain Altay is and what he symbolizes, he actually symbolizes our graduates who take care of our school under the title of beybaba. It symbolizes choosing our graduates from equals in our school. He has supported our school, which he graduated from, not in a manner of patronage, but in a modest line, quietly supporting and nourishing our school, sustaining our spirit of solidarity. Greetings to our beybaba who has carried the torch of solidarity until now. As graduates, we will move forward confidently, embracing what he taught us from the path he opened.”

Speech by Capt. İlyas Murtezaoğlu on behalf of the 1980 graduates: “Boarding School and Life at Sea”

I extend my condolences to the families of our departed colleagues Capt. Kamil Yavaşman, Capt. Uğur Köroğlu, Capt. Hikmet Alpaslan, and Hikmet Mangır. We are approximately 55 graduates from the 1980 period. If we want to embody the spirit of YDO, we can add many things. I valued two things greatly: one is the boarding school system because of the shared experiences there, and the second is life at sea. At a time when we were in the planning stages for building dormitories to reintroduce this boarding system, we first visited our late and respected Capt. Altay Altuğ, whom we always approached. He gave us great courage. With that courage, we were able to establish the dormitory where you can now comfortably stay. We can call Altay Ağabey the Santa Claus of our community. He always supported and assisted us. May he rest in peace. We lost Altay Ağabey, but our school raised two more Altays: Capt. Kaan Altuğ and Eng. Noyan Altuğ. Therefore, we were not left orphaned. We will continue to see that support. I thank them for this. Tomorrow, you will also graduate from this distinguished school. The mainstay of the friendships you have made here is the alumni association, foundation, and other civil society organizations. Please do not forget our association and foundation while dreaming of setting sail. You will now become the benefactors of our foundation from which you currently benefit. Remember that you must continue to support with your donations. We are very proud of Prof. Dr. Özcan Arslan, who is the first graduate dean of our school. We congratulate him.

Speech by Capt. Yavuz Ulugün on behalf of the 1981 graduates: “We Witnessed History”

It has been about 45 years since we entered this school’s doors. Each of us took our first steps into this school in different parts of this country, on different voyages, and embracing different cultures. Today, despite the passing years, we stand shoulder to shoulder with our friends. Over 44 years, with each of our support, a stronger friendship has formed. The school year, internship year, life at sea, and then commercial life kept us together at the crossroads where our paths intersected. The difficulties and hardships of our era increased our resilience and prepared us for life. After the 1980 coup that took place towards the end of our education years, our school, which provided civilian education, was attempted to be turned into a military position by the dictatorial regime. These young men standing before you contributed to ensuring our school’s survival with its historical mission. Today, this distinguished school continues its education and training under the ITU umbrella, and the contribution of this group, currently in their 60s, who are standing before you, cannot be denied.

“We Inherited from our Elders”

Within the traditions and customs we inherited from our elders, we not only met within the school year but also supported our continuing education brothers over the years, provided job opportunities for young graduates, volunteered in social responsibility projects, directed ministries with our knowledge and experience, took on missions that would contribute to all stakeholders in the sector. There were days we were proud of what we did, days we applauded the success of our classmates, days we joined forces to solve problems together, and days we provided solace to our schoolmates. In this arduous journey we started with 102 people, some of our friends left us and passed away into eternity. Capt. Ferit Acarlar, Capt. Cumhur Esmer, Capt. Yusuf Ziya Tür, Capt. Ali Hamdi Bayraktaroğlu, Capt. Erdem Sezgin, Capt. Halit Meriç, Capt. Erkal Büyükdikmen, Capt. Lütfü Oral, Capt. Özer Avuz, and other colleagues, may their souls rest in peace. Their memories will always live within us. Today, as you gradually conclude your careers on Turkish seas, in Coastal Safety, and in international ships, we are trying to pass on the solidarity spirit we inherited and developed from our elders to younger generations.

“We are the Cement of Maritime”

In this regard, graduates of our school contribute as pioneers to every aspect of contemporary maritime trade. While introducing many innovations to our country, we never abandoned the spirit of sectoral solidarity and sharing, even in the face of obstacles encountered at sea. We will not refrain from saying that we are the adhesive cement of maritime and its sub-sectors. Dear Rector, we are before you as your graduates of 40 years, and we are ready to share all our experiences for our school and brotherhood whenever you wish. Dear brothers, you can reach out to any of us whenever you want. Our doors are always open to you. When the time comes, you will assume these responsibilities yourselves.

Dear representatives of the Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Turkey. Today, we once again extend the hand we have reached out to you over the past 40 years. Over these years, as those who have carried Turkish maritime to its current state, we are ready to assist you in every aspect with our experiences and skills whenever you need. Please take note of what I have said. And finally, a few words for our children or grandchildren of our dear elders. This is a situation where emotions are expressed more deeply. To our spouses who set sail before us, to our children who spent years without us, to our mothers, fathers, and grandchildren, we thank you once again for the support you have given.

Lastly, we remember with respect and gratitude all those who have contributed to us along this path. Long live our school, long live ITU Maritime Faculty.

President of the Chamber of Shipping of IMEAK Capt. Salih Zeki Çakır:

“Fortune favors the prepared”

As a 1979 Deck graduate and President of the Chamber of Shipping, I greet you all sincerely. First of all, I offer my condolences to the esteemed elders of our community, may they rest in peace. Today, we are gathered in this hall with many generations of our elders, classmates, and brothers to keep the tradition alive. I feel indebted to our esteemed Rector, our faculty, and our alumni association members for enabling us to reconnect with our seniors, classmates, and brothers. On this occasion, I congratulate and wish successful, healthy, and long lives to the elder brothers and sisters who have completed 40, 50, 60, and 70 years. I sincerely thank all our graduates who have contributed significantly to maritime affairs, politics, bureaucracy, sports, arts, and domestic and foreign companies, and I extend my gratitude to them. I believe that the spirit of solidarity and sharing that has been transferred from profession to field has played a very important role in bringing us to this day. I believe that it is our collective responsibility to preserve and develop this spirit of solidarity and pass it on to the future. Personally, I want you to know that I have been trying to do this until today and will continue to do so within my means. I want to say a few words to our young people especially. There is a very important thing you need to pay attention to. As you know, maritime is entering a rapid and transformative development phase worldwide. You need to work hard to prepare for this process of adaptation. I am confident that you will succeed. Success is not a matter of chance; be prepared. Fortune favors the prepared. On this occasion, I wish health, peace, and success to our entire community in the new year. Stay healthy.

Rector of ITU Prof. Dr. İsmail Koyuncu:

“We Represent Our Country”

Since 1884, the former High Maritime School, now known as the ITU Maritime Faculty, has contributed greatly to Turkish maritime and brought our country’s maritime sector to where it is today. As captains, shipowners, engineers, and academics, we have proudly represented our country not only in Turkey but also in many parts of the world. Today, when maritime education is mentioned in our country, ITU Maritime Faculty is still the first institution that comes to mind. Every year, we focus on the future to provide better education than before and make every effort we can. Currently, our colleagues are working on the curriculum again.

“I am thankful to our graduates of 40, 50, 60, and 70 years who honored us with their presence. I wish them good, healthy, and long lives and hope their services will continue to grow. I sincerely congratulate and thank all our graduates who, from history to the present, have taken on important responsibilities in maritime trade, politics, bureaucracy, sports, arts, and local and foreign companies. I believe that the transfer of knowledge and solidarity spirit from the past to the present has made a significant contribution to bringing our school to this day. I believe that it is our collective responsibility to preserve and develop this spirit of solidarity and pass it on to the future. Personally, I want you to know that I have been trying to do this until today and will continue to do so within my means. I want to say a few words to our young people especially. There is a very important thing you need to pay attention to. As you know, maritime is entering a rapid and transformative development phase worldwide. You need to work hard to prepare for this process of adaptation. I am confident that you will succeed. Success is not a matter of chance; be prepared. Fortune favors the prepared. On this occasion, I wish health, peace, and success to our entire community in the new year. Stay healthy.