Education basic human right, defend it to the end: Doğan Online chairwoman

Esra ÜLKAR – ISTANBUL

The founder of Turkey’s leading internet company Doğan Online, Hanzade Doğan Boyner, spoke on May 20 about the importance of education at a gathering with some 36 of the most successful female students of the Aydın Doğan Foundation (ADV), telling the students to pursue their dreams by going to university and completing their degrees. 

The foundation hosted the students along with 12 of their teachers in Istanbul as part of the “Success Sends Me To Istanbul” project, which it conducted together with Ataşehir district’s national education directorate. 

“We are proud of you. You have received very good grades. Thanks to your diligence, you are here in Istanbul. Hopefully, in two years, you will enroll in schools [universities] that you want and continue your education life until you graduate from college,” Doğan Boyner told the crowd.

“All we want from you is to finish university, because education is a basic human right. Defend it to the end. No one can take that away from you,” she added.



Doğan Group Honorary Chairman Aydın Doğan also delivered a speech during the ceremony. “Whatever you do in your career or life, whichever career you pursue, strive to be the best. Those who want could also be journalists. Journalism is a very good but hard profession,” Doğan said. 

“Unfortunately, some 20 percent of our female and male high school students are still not going to school. And some 20 percent are studying through open education high school. We wish that everyone could attend school for 12 years uninterrupted, make use of their schools, get a high-quality education, and start their lives with confidence. This is why we are undertaking such works. But tomorrow we will hand over the torch, and you will take it over,” ADV Executive Council Chairwoman Candan Fetvacı told the girls at the ceremony.

The students, who were awarded with laptops as well as gift cards and books as part of the project, were given a tour of Istanbul’s historic and cultural sites as well as the Doğan Holding buildings. 

The students from Erzurum, Gümüşhane, Muğla, Kars, Tokat, Denizli, Mardin and Artvin are staying at ADV’s dorms, opened as part of the “Dad, Send me to School” (BBOG) campaign.

The BBOG project, which was initiated by the Doğan Group in 2005 and undertaken by the ADV in 2015, aims to create equal educational opportunities for young girls across Turkey. 

It has so far built 33 dormitories for girls, established schools in 12 villages and granted education scholarships to over 11,000 girls. 

By undertaking the construction of five dormitories and giving scholarships, the ADV has been the project’s largest donor.  

In addition to Aydın Doğan and Hanzade Doğan Boyner, the honorary chair’s wife, Sema Işıl Doğan; Ataşehir Deputy Director of National Education Ali Eroğlu; ADV Board of Directors member Ahmet Toksoy and several executives from Doğan Holding also attended the ceremony.