Rector of KAEU Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kasım Karahocagil attended the conference on Ethics and Principles of Ethical Behavior in Public Administration organized by Kırşehir Governorship. On October 22, 2024 at Kırşehir Neşet Ertaş Culture and Art Center, the conference was attended by President of the Ethics Board of Public Officials and 23rd President of the Council of State Zerrin Güngör, Member of the Constitutional Court Recai Akyel, Governor of Kırşehir Murat Sefa Demiryürek, Mayor of Kırşehir Selahattin Ekicioğlu, Chief Public Prosecutor of Kırşehir Oğuz Şükrü Ener, Rector of KAEU Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kasım Karahocagil, provincial administrators, managers and public personnel.
Delivering the opening speech of the program, Rector of KAEU Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kasım Karahococagil started his speech with the words of the writer Aleksandr Solzhenistsyn: "I have spent all my life under a Communist regime, and I will tell you that a society without any objective legal scale is a terrible one indeed. But a society with no other scale but the legal one is not quite worthy of man either." Rector Karahocagil pointed out that no law could prevent corruption and chaos in societies that have not reached a consensus on certain moral values and ethical responsibilities, and that unwritten ethical rules and moral tolerance would affect and sustain a society much more than written laws. Emphasizing the importance of ethical rules in our lives, Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kasım Karahocagil said that the duty of public service was entrusted to them for a certain period of time and that it should be done by adhering to ethical principles and social moral tolerance while fulfilling this duty and continued his speech as follows: “Ethical principles in public administration refer to a set of values such as impartiality, honesty, justice, transparency, accountability, accountability, public interest, etc. that must be followed while making decisions and carrying out public services. The state carries out activities that fall under the responsibility of municipal affairs such as security, justice, education and health through public officials. Public officials are obliged to carry out public activities in accordance with the legislation, especially the constitution. The main principle on which all this legislation is based is the realization of the public welfare.”
Stating that attention has been drawn to issues related to the ethics of public officials in our country since the 1980s, Rector of KAEU Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kasım Karahococagil explained that the Ethics Board of Public Officials was established in 2004 with the law numbered 5176. “In fact, the concept of ethics is the theory of right and wrong behavior as a branch of philosophy that examines the foundations of morality, while morality is the practice of this theory.” Rector Karahocagil emphasized that morality was the reflection of ethics to society and according to our civilization, morality constitutes the basis of the creation philosophy of the whole universe. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kasım Karahocagil stated that our civilization was a civilization of knowledge, wisdom and insight that put human beings at the center by accepting them as equal to creation and continued his speech as follows: “Ahi Evran-ı Veli, who had a great impact on the establishment of our civilization in Anatolia, founded the Akhism system, which has a profound impact not only on economic life but also on social and political life, by pushing values such as labor, morality, right and justice to the ground of praise, gratitude and conviction, and embroidered this gem all over Anatolia with love, respect and humility. The main mission of the Akhism, which has the meanings of brother, brave, heroic, and generous, is to reach a perfect society by raising good people and to serve human beings and society. To work and produce, to do the best and the highest quality that one can do, to consider all creatures as trusts, to do business with consultation, turn an honest penny, not to be deceived, not to deceive, to compete in charity, to prefer one's brother-society to one's own self, have been the mottoes of Ahis who are masters of knowledge, wisdom and insight. Akhism is a values education model based on the understanding of science, art and morality that comes from the spirit of futuwwa from which it originates. Akhism is the combination of knowledge with wisdom, production with quality, and trade with morality. As a non-governmental organization, the Akhism organization, first of all, has accepted and adopted teams and rules and principles based on moral regulations in order for its members, and then all citizens in the society to live a peaceful, healthy and contented life. This organization has served as a bridge that established trust between tradesmen, merchants, rich, poor, public, political power and citizens in society within the understanding of rights and justice. As a result, the Ahis, who were inspired by the futuwvet namas, which you can consider as the ethical declarations of their period, deeply affected social life by raising good people despite being a non-governmental organization, established trust in society, this environment of trust was sustained by the Seljuks and played a role as a secret that established the Ottoman Empire.” Stating that the revival and reconstruction of ethical values in today's world should be based on the ancient Akhism values and that he believed that this would be better, more beautiful and more beneficial for all humanity, Rector of KAEU Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kasım Karahocagil emphasized that as a university bearing the name of Ahi Evran-ı Veli, they were ready for every task that falls on them.
Following the opening speeches of Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kasım Karahococagil, Mayor of Kırşehir Selahattin Ekicioğlu, Governor of Kırşehir Murat Sefa Demiryürek and President of the Ethics Board of Public Officials and 23rd President of the Council of State Zerrin Güngör gave short speeches about Ethics and Principles of Ethical Behavior in Public Administration.
After the opening speeches, Prof. Dr. İnayet Aydın, a faculty member of Ankara University, made a presentation.
