Turkey’s main opposition leader visits top tier universities in the US

Turkey's main opposition CHP (Republican People’s Party) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu met with academics in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and University of Harvard in Boston, during the first leg of a three day visit to the US which he calls “2nd Century Vision Tour.” 

Kilicdaroglu first examined a biomedical lab run by Turkish physicist Canan Dagdeviren, who explained to him the production stages of an electronic mask produced to facilitate the detection of diseases in the lab. Dagdeviren said despite a great number of scientists in Turkey, the country suffered a lack of biomedical devices, to which Kilicdaroglu promised state support if the opposition retained power. 

Kilicdaroglu then held a meeting with Dr. Kent Larson who works on smart city technologies, innovative mobility models and urban solutions as well as other Turkish scientists who work on cancer studies and global warming.

During dinner with several Turkish and American academics  Kilicdaroglu the scientists were the ones who would  move a society forward. 

“If that science then turns into technology and consequently into production and commodities, society will win, humanity will win,” he said. 

After dinner, the opposition leader met with renowned economist Daron Acemoglu, with whom “he talked in detail about the future of Turkey and the solutions that will improve the economy.”

Kilicdaroglu later talked to Gokhan Hotamisligil, world-renowned Harvard University faculty member who works on obesity and diabetes. 

Hotamisligil told Kilicdaroglu  that Turkey has a tremendous scientific diaspora.

He made the following comments about Turkish people migrating to the US: 

“There is an unhealthy influx in some occupational groups. There are 30-40 candidates this year who have barely started their careers and are in the first stage. 20 of them deserve it. Some of them are bright, dlnamic, growing scientists,” he said.