Sharing desks at Bilgi

Greek and Turkish students learn about relations between the two countries

International relations professors Harry Tzimitras (left) and Umut Ozkirimli (right) have helped Istanbul’s Bilgi University create the world’s only Turkish-Greek Studies curriculum.

By Damaris Kremida - Turkish Daily News

ISTANBUL – When international relations professors Harry Tzimitras and Umut Ozkirimli introduced a Greek-Turkish studies course to the 12 Greeks and Cypriots and six Turks in class, the students could not decide which of the two was Greek and which was Turkish. Ozkirimli and Tzimitras have helped Bilgi University create the world’s only Turkish-Greek Studies curriculum, established in 2005 through the International Relations Department, and say that fact alone is a measure of their success.

“This is the only master’s program in the world on Greek-Turkish relations that targets both audiences,” Tzimitras told the Turkish Daily News.

The program received an honorable mention by the European Political Science Network for their teaching innovation in 2007 thanks not only to the unique initiative of Bilgi, but also the distinctive coordination and teaching of the two professors that is characterized by a touch of critical thinking.

“It’s purpose is to get you to see things from a more critical angle,” said one of the second-year Greek students in the program. “So things I took for granted were turned on their heads.”

“Our aim is to bring down stereotypes and the reservoir of negative perceptions,” said Tzimitras. “We try to be a platform for academic dialogue.”

“We want each side to consider the other’s point of view,” added Ozkirimli.

Tzimitras and Ozkirimli joke that they complement each other like “yin and yang” and that students are usually looking for either one of them as if they were “interchangeable entities”; to the point that while presenting the Greek and Turkish sides of the argument at the beginning of the fall semester, one student asked, “Which one of you is Greek?”

But this is only fitting of a program that tries to get students in the shoes of the other side. At the beginning of the course, using a hands-on Socratic approach, the professors let the students have a go at each other and freely discuss Greek-Turkish relations as they understand them.

“During the first week of classes we don’t interfere, we just let them talk to each other,” said Ozkirimli. In the process the two sides realize that “they know the same facts the other way around,” said Tzimitras. “They have different interpretations of the same facts.” At that point they realize by themselves that they need to find the truth in the middle or at least beyond the two extremes, “somewhere in the middle.”

Tzimitras leads the course on Greek-Turkish relations, while Ozkirimli teaches that on nationalism in Greece and Turkey. They are two professors, one Greek and one Turk, teaching together Greeks and Turks as well as third nationals that join through the Erasmus program. Visiting professors from St Anthony’s College of Oxford University and the London School of Economics and Political Science, as well as various Greek universities also contribute to the teaching.

Last year the Department of International Relations saw off its first master’s degree graduates with a concentration in Turkish-Greek studies, while last fall they welcomed the third group of students thirsty to understand the politics and relations between the two neighboring countries.

The program is quite competitive as only a third of the students that apply are admitted. So far the program has had around 23 Greek and Greek-Cypriot students and nearly 20 Turks if you count undergraduates taking classes in the program. When asked how they explain the higher interest and enrollment of Greek master’s students, the two said it comes as no surprise.

“Greeks are traditionally more interested in Turkish studies,” explained Tzimitras. Language schools around Istanbul say that in the last few years they have noted a very high enrollment of Greek students in their Turkish language courses during the summer.

“And Greek families are eager to send their children here… They come to experience life in Turkey and to improve their Turkish,” said Ozkirimli, although most of the Greek students who attend the Bilgi program already speak Turkish.

“It’s also more of a challenge,” Tzimitras added. “They are choosing an education in Turkey over Britain or Germany… so it’s more of a step for them.”

As for the Turkish students, Ozkirimli said the low Turkish numbers have more to do with finances and the fact that “committed” students are interested in PhD studies and bypass master’s degrees in general.

“We are looking at providing the means for Turkish students to overcome the financial barrier of attending the program,” said Tzimitras.

Apart from continuing the program and recruitment for it, the coordinators said their biggest priority is to strengthen their research scale through the development of a library, hosting more academics, and promoting the authoring of more papers on Greek-Turkish relations.

Ozkirimli brings to his office table a book fresh off the printer called “Tormented by History.” The book is co-authored by Ozkirimli and Spyros Sofos, a Greek senior research fellow in European and international studies at London’s Kingston University. “It a tangible result of the research stemming from our Greek-Turkish initiative,” he said.

Of course continuing to draw students to the program and work with them knowing that they could be influencing future policymakers will always be the most exiting part of the program.

“It is the very first initiative on Greek-Turkish relations in an institutional setting… we’re working with the next generation,” explained Tzimitras.