Intellectual Lunch On Anatolian Sufism

Today's Zaman - Ankara, Turkey
Thursday, November 29, 2007

At the first of his new series of “intellectual lunches,” President Abdullah Gül yesterday dined with two acclaimed professors, one of whom suggested establishing a department to improve relations with the Turkic states of Central Asia, while the other drew the president’s attention to the importance of founding cultural centers to conduct research on Anatolian Sufism.

The lunch lasted one-and-a-half hours and took place at Çankaya Palace, the presidential residence in Ankara. Following the meal historian Halil İnalcık said the president would attempt to establish a Mediterranean research institute.

“Greece is more active than Turkey in that regard. They founded a research institute on Crete. Falling behind Greece disappointed the president,” said İnalcık, who also suggested establishing institutes to improve relations with the Central Asian states.

Professor of literature and former Culture Minister Talat Halman said he told Gül Turkish history, literature and music should be promoted abroad. One important figure in that regard is Yunus Emre, a great mystical folk poet who died in 1320 but who left immortal works of poetry behind, he said.

President Gül’s secretary, Mustafa İsen, said Gül will continue to have such lunches with intellectuals to exchange views and to gain inspiration for new projects.

Meetings with intellectuals in İstanbul will take place in one of the presidential mansions, located in the Tarabya district.