HRH Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales visited Izmir University of Economics
HRH Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales visited Izmir University of Economics as part of his trip to Turkey. He was greeted by Prof. Dr. Attila Sezgin, the Rector of Izmir University of Economics, Ekrem Demirtaş, the President of the Board of Trustees of Izmir University of Economics and Patricia Türkmenoğlu, the Director of Izmir British Council.
Prince Charles first visited the Faculty of Computer Sciences and talked with the students there in the Electronics and Mac Laboratories. There he watched a simulated virtual training programme about the commercial trading port of Izmir. This had been prepared by the university. His tour continued in the Faculty of Art and Design, where he visited the Department of Industrial Design. There he attended a class of students preparing projects at an international level. The students showed him their work, which was displayed there, including pieces of furniture, samples of hand made balsa wood cutlery and designs for electrical garden tools made out of foam rubber.
Afterwards HRH Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales continued to the Department of Fashion Design and talked to the students who were sewing trenchcoats there. He then toured the ‘Sümerbank Archive’, a collection of more than five thousand printed fabric samples, which have been donated to Izmir University of Economics. In conclusion Prince Charles watched the students’ light hearted fashion show on protective clothing. The fashion show highlighted such environmental issues as global warming, desertification, flooding, earthquakes and population explosion.
After the tour around the Izmir University of Economics, HRH Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales attended the reception which was held in his honour. Participants included the British business community, academics, British residents of Izmir, Turkish businessmen trading with the UK, Izmir Protocol, members of the Board of Trustees of Izmir University of Economics and Izmir media representatives.
During the reception the Rector, Prof. Dr. Attila Sezgin, gave Prince Charles two renowned Devrek Walking Sticks on behalf of the university. Ekrem Demirtaş presented the Prince with a statue of Meandros / Kiastros, the god of the Lesser Menders River, as a bearer of prosperity and as a memory of his visit to the Aegean. HRH Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales then signed the visitors’ book of Izmir University of Economics.
