Original studies needed on Arab world
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Hürriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mayıs 27, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - State Minister Mehmet Aydın criticized the world’s academic studies on Islam in his speech yesterday at the opening of an international academic conference on Arab and Ottoman-period geography in Istanbul.
Aydın highlighted the need for people of the region to provide knowledge about the region’s history and relations. "The knowledge that is used to determine the relations among the communities living in this region is generally produced outside of this area," Aydın said, adding that the world is thankful for this knowledge, but that knowledge is influenced by the person’s ideological and political views.
Aydın talked in the opening session of the International Symposium on Ottoman Period Arab Geography and Turkish-Arabic Relations. Marmara University History Department and the Association of Researchers on the Middle East and Africa, or ORDAF organized the symposium. More than 60 participants from Arab world and other countries will attend the conference, which will end Thursday. The conference is supported by the Prime Ministry Publicity Fund, Turkish History Institution and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.
The symposium in the short run aims to overview the academic works on Ottoman-period Arab geography and relations between two communities. "The aim of this conference is to examine the accumulation of last century without any mediator in between," said Professor Zekeriya Kurşun, the head of history department at Marmara University and the ORDAF. Identifying new targets for Ottoman studies and encouraging new methods are among the other aims.
Aydın talked in the opening session of the International Symposium on Ottoman Period Arab Geography and Turkish-Arabic Relations. Marmara University History Department and the Association of Researchers on the Middle East and Africa, or ORDAF organized the symposium. More than 60 participants from Arab world and other countries will attend the conference, which will end Thursday. The conference is supported by the Prime Ministry Publicity Fund, Turkish History Institution and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.
The symposium in the short run aims to overview the academic works on Ottoman-period Arab geography and relations between two communities. "The aim of this conference is to examine the accumulation of last century without any mediator in between," said Professor Zekeriya Kurşun, the head of history department at Marmara University and the ORDAF. Identifying new targets for Ottoman studies and encouraging new methods are among the other aims.