The team of Selcuk University based in Konya, central Turkey, won on Tuesday the final round of the Arabic debate competition, and qualified with three other teams to participate in the International Debating Championship in Qatar in March 2022.
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This competition was organized by Sultan Mehmet Al-Fateh University at its headquarters in Istanbul on Tuesday and Wednesday in cooperation with the QatarDebate Center under the name “National University Debating Championship – Turkey 2021”.
The final round was attended by officials who handed out prizes to the winners, including the president of the World Traditional Sports Federation, Bilal Erdogan, son of the Turkish president, the former Turkish ambassador to Doha, Fikret Ozar, and the president of Sultan Mehmet Fatih University, Mehmet Fatih Andy.
120 students from 20 universities in all provinces of Turkey participated in the tournament, in the presence of 40 arbitrators, mostly from Arab countries.
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The final round was held between two teams, one of whom supported the topic presented for the debate and the other opposed, and each team consisted of three students, one of whom was an Arab. The title of the debate was “This council prefers economic stability over environmental protection.”
The Selcuk University team, which represented the opposition, won first place, followed by the Ibn Khaldun University team, while the Ankara University Haji Bayram Vali team ranked third, and the Sultan Mehmet Al-Fateh University team came behind. The four teams qualified to participate in the International Debating Championship in Qatar.
A draw is made between two teams to determine the opponent and supporter of the topic presented for debate, and each member of the two teams gives a speech in Arabic about the topic for 6 minutes, then the stage of the two teams’ response speeches begins, and each team represents a member speaking for 3 minutes.
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In his speech, Bilal Erdogan stressed the importance of strengthening the teaching of the Arabic language because it is the language of the Noble Qur’an and a link between Turkey and Arab countries in the future.
He expressed his wishes that the agreement between Sultan Muhammad Al-Fateh University and the QatarDebate Center will be “lively and exemplary.”
Earlier this December, Sultan Muhammad Al-Fateh University and QatarDebate signed a memorandum of understanding to enhance cooperation between them and work to open the TurkeyDebate Center at Al-Fateh University headquarters.
The Director of Programs at QatarDebate Center Abdul Rahman Al-Subaie expressed his pride that the center’s team is sponsoring the first activities of the TurkeyDebate Center in Istanbul, “Al-Araqa”.
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And Al-Subaie added: “From the depth of our Arab civilization and our Islamic religion, the Arabic language was a link between us and other civilizations. Today we preserve its message that we have built cooperation with the Turkish state through educational institutions.”
QatarDebate is a member of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development, and was established in 2008 in Doha with the aim of spreading the culture of debates in the Arabic language and promoting the language, and launched in 2010 world championships.
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Turkey has been distinguished by its participation in Arabic debate tournaments over the years and won the title of the 4th International School Arabic Debating Championship in 2018.
