Opening Speech - UEP2023

The 30th Congress of the European Phoniatricans (@UEP2023) is performed at Xanadu Convention Center. Here is my opening speech from April 27, 2023:

Dear colleagues, dear friends, and esteemed members of the Union of European Phoniatricians,

I am pleased to welcome you all to the 30th Congress of our Union.

Our 30th Congress is particularly special. Our president, Prof. Ahmed Geneid, in Helsinki in 2018, performed our very successful last meeting. This is our first congress in the previous five years. During this period, we marked the 50th anniversary of our union's founding with a successful meeting in Belgrade. You may have easily recognized it in the program books in your bags that, to commemorate the four professors we call our founders, we named four of our meeting halls in this meeting with their names: Cjevic, Biesalski, Kittel and Schindler.

History of Türkiye is a perfect tapestry woven with threads of diverse ethiniticites, traditions, and religions. From the earliest civilizations of Anatolia to the modern-day Turkish Republic, this land has been a cradle of society, a crossroad of cultures, and a solid bridge between East and West.

Today, with this gathering, we also celebrate the legacy of one of the most outstanding leaders in modern history: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. He is the driving force behind the transformation of Türkiye into a modern, secular, and democratic nation. Today we are honored to welcome you here in Türkiye at the 100th anniversary of the founding of the young Turkish Republic.

Atatürk’s education reform introduced a new curriculum emphasizing science, technology, and arts. With this driving force, a university reform was performed, which expedited modern medicine teaching in Turkish universities. First women doctors graduated from Turkish medical faculties and began practicing in 1928, and the number of medical doctors has increased by three folds in the first 14 years of the republic. One of our roots that I will mention today, Prof. Behbut Cevansir, is an excellent example of the results of this reform. He graduated from Istanbul University School of Medicine. He is the first medical doctor to propose a name change in our discipline from “Ear Nose Throat Disorders” to “ENT - Head and Neck Surgery and Communication Disorders” in Türkiye. He is the writer of the first book on Phoniatrics in Turkish. That’s why we will commemorate him and call our Hall A, this room we now use as the “Cevanşir Hall”.

We have 476 attendees from 50 different countries. You will see the names of all attendees on the board at the exhibition hall. When we look at the contribution list, the first ten countries contributing as speakers are Türkiye, Italy, Germany, the USA, Russia, South Korea, the UK, Czechia, Poland and Belgium. I am really proud to be the president of this congress, an activity of which is obviously far beyond Europe and literally international.

During your travel and stay in the meeting, please use the hashtag #uep2023 for your photos on social media so that we may follow and share them. We will have a family photo together. It will be on Saturday at noon, 12:00 p.m..

We defined the theme of this meeting as “From the Roots to the Future”. Before ending the opening ceremony, I will request one special colleague and professor to the stage. Our honorary chairperson, Prof. Antoinette am Zehnhoff Dinnesen, who raised our union from the ashes, and who is the mother of the union that we have today. Then I will request Prof. Jürgen Wendler and Prof. Nasser Kotby to be with us.

Thank you, and I wish you all a productive and rewarding Congress. Enjoy being in the UEP family.

Prof.Dr. Haldun OGUZ

Congress President