First Turkey Preliminary Qualifiers of the 5th Ibn Haldun University Turkey Debating Championship was held on 22-23 December 2018 at our university's Başakşehir Campus. Debate teams of 56 elite schools from different regions of Turkey such as Robert College, Galatasaray High School, Istanbul Boys High School, Kabataş High School, Beyoğlu Anatolian Imam Hatip High School, and Bursa İpekçiler Anatolian Imam Hatip High School participated in 11 high schools, among which our Debate and Thought Club is the education sponsor. 36 teams qualified for the next round in the qualifying round. In addition to the debating matches held in the two-day qualifying round, the students took fun photos and shared good posts for the social media competition that will continue throughout the tournament.
“Our University Adds an Academic Perspective to the Tournament”
Mukaddes Kutlu, Chairman of the Debate and Thought Club of Ibn Haldun University, stated that the Turkey Debating Championship has been organized under the name of Ibn Haldun University Turkey Debating Championship since last year; “This tournament is a very meaningful experience for our Debate and Thought Club. Our aim is to carry the Turkish Debating Championship forward by adding an academic perspective.”
Muhammet Emirhan Sarı, Vice President of the Debate and Thought Club of Ibn Haldun University, stated that he was happy to take part in such an organization and said: “We see that we have achieved something as a club and we are happy. At the same time, it is very meaningful to organize such a large-scale organization with our new members who have only joined us for 2-3 months. I am very happy that our friends who won our university this year feel a lot of belonging to the club to spend their weekends with us. I would also like to thank our university for giving us this opportunity. It was a perfect, trouble-free organization.”
Sarı stated that students from many different regions of Turkey came to the tournament, but that they aim to increase this diversity even more: “Our goal for the Turkish Debating Championship is to have more students from more provinces and more high schools compete in this championship.”
“This Tournament Is Truly Turkey's Debate Championship!”
Beritan Zorkun Arık, Vice Chairman of the Jury of the Turkish Debate Championship, stated that the Ibn Haldun University Turkey Debating Championship was the tournament in which the most schools participated and the most provinces were represented in Turkey:
“As the name suggests, this tournament is truly Turkey's debating championship! All schools want success. As far as I have observed, the children both had fun and learned a lot. Of course, some succeeded and some lost. But at the end of the day, they were all very happy. Ibn Haldun University has a great share in this. Thanks to the opportunities and hosting provided by the university, we the juries, the participating high school students, and our teachers had a very enjoyable time here.”
“Ibn Haldun University Hosted the Tournament very well”
Engin Arıkan, Chairman of the Jury Committee of the Ibn Haldun University Turkey Debating Championship, said, “Many young people are debating on a wide variety of subjects in a very creative and gentlemanly manner. They are improving themselves. They become much more knowledgeable, much more tolerant, and much more open-minded. They learn to justify the ideas they put forward, understand the opinions of the other party, and respond to them. I am very happy to see these. I would like to thank Ibn Haldun University for holding this tournament in positive and comfortable conditions with a very good host.”
Mehmet Fatih Özmısırcı, Vice Chairman of the Jury Committee of the Ibn Haldun University Turkey Debate Championship, stated that as the debate became more widespread in high schools, the quality increased and he had the opportunity to observe this fact in this tournament and continued his words as follows: “There were very good teams in the tournament. Ibn Khaldun hosted us very nicely. There is often a shortage of physical facilities in tournaments. These are the things that affect the motivation of the students and bring the comfort of the tournament to the next level. Since Ibn Haldun had sufficient facilities, we had the comfort of being able to focus only on the debate. This added to the enjoyment of the job.”
