Prof. Dr. Ali Yasar Saribay's Views on the Abant Platform
Abant Platform had a function of providing an opportunity for the interaction of different views. The fact that almost every group had a chance to voice their views and this was done in a very democratic manner with very few minor exceptions shows that we have made significant progress in both our intellectual advancement and practice of democracy. What made me able to describe this platform as "dialogic" is that in every meeting I participated, views were put forward to another view, that views were accepted to be answerable and that they got response. This is very different from "dialogue" which is all about putting forwards opposing but unrelated ideas. In dialogic, people have diversity of voices within themselves and there is a willingness to re-look at them in the light of what other people say. Dialogue is indeed a situation which emerges out of questioning among people. In dialogic, there is a process of internal questioning as a result of an external response. Dialogue is a way of revealing one's views by means of other people. However, dialogic is reflecting on one's internal voices by acknowledging the credibility of the others' view and focus on the one that will not cast shade on the their credibility.
In this sense it can be said that Abant platform does not only offer an opportunity for a culture of democracy to mature but also helps the participants' inner voices to develop even further.
It has to be acknowledge that the initiatives of Journalists and Writers Foundation is the most significant and encouraging factor in developing the characteristics of the Platform that I tried to outline above.
Prof. Dr. Ali Yasar Saribay
Uludag University
Academic CoordinatorAbant Platform
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