The foundation ceremony of Afyon Kocatepe University (AKÜ) Veterinary Health Application and Research Center (Kocatepe Animal Hospital) was held.
The foundation laying ceremony of Kocatepe Animal Hospital was attended by AK Party Afyonkarahisar Deputy and former Minister of Forestry and Water Affairs Prof., Afyonkarahisar Mayor Mehmet Zeybek, Afyon Kocatepe University President Prof. Dr. Mehmet Karakaş, Afyonkarahisar Health Sciences University President Prof. Dr. Nurullah Okumuş, Afyonkarahisar Deputy Governor Mehmet Keklik, AKÜ Vice Presidents Prof. Dr. Şuayıp Özdemir, Prof. Dr. Faculty Dean Prof. Dr. Turan Civelek, public institution and organization provincial directors, academic and administrative staff.
Animal hospitals are essential for quality veterinary education
AKÜ Veterinary Faculty Dean Prof. Dr. Turan Civelek, who made the opening speech of the groundbreaking ceremony, provided information about the faculty. Expressing that AKÜ Veterinary Faculty started to accept students in 1997, Civelek said, “It has been serving our province, our region and today with a strong staff since that day. Animal hospitals are the basic application areas that prepare veterinary activities for life. It is necessary and mandatory for quality veterinary education. The education-training activities and promotion-treatment services previously provided on a clinical basis within the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine are currently continuing under the roof of the Animal Hospital, as a unit affiliated to the Rectorate, in a closed area of 2 thousand 51 square meters. Our current buildings were constructed piece by piece during the period of our different rectors and were prepared as a full hospital project on a reel basis and cannot fully meet the needs in today’s requirements.Expressing that Afyonkarahisar is the capital for animal husbandry, Civelek said, “Afyonkarahisar is the capital of animal-based food and animal husbandry. For this reason, it has required the components of a hospital complex that is worthy of our city, worthy of our Faculty of Veterinary Medicine operating in the field of health, worthy of our university. These relations will also provide the feature of being the first specifically projected building complex of our defects, completely according to the needs, at world standards.”
Significant contributions will be made to regional animal husbandry
AKÜ Rector Prof. Dr. Mehmet Karakaş stated in his speech that AKÜ is a university that provides universal knowledge production, professionally competitive with its contemporaries, and contribution to regional development, and that veterinary education is one of the most important study programs in this sense. Karakaş said, “We defined veterinary education as one of the 3 registered fields recorded by our senate. We are carrying out both our investments and programs in this direction.” Karakaş said, “Our university is a university that contributes to regional and national development in the field of animal health and animal husbandry with the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Education and Research Farm, Veterinary Health Application and Research Center, as well as the Laboratory and Veterinary Health departments in Bayat, Emirdağ and Şuhut Vocational Schools. AKÜ, which has a quarter-century of experience in veterinary education, continues to support and register in the field of healthy animal husbandry and animal health, especially in Afyonkarahisar. “Our Veterinary Health Application and Research Center, with the new Kocatepe Animal Hospital we have established, will make significant contributions to the animal husbandry and animal health of our province and the region,” he said.
Animal emergency hospital provides examination and treatment of stray animals
Karakaş, who provides all kinds of diagnosis and treatment of animals such as cats, dogs, birds, ornamental animals, farm animals with modern devices in the 2,051 square meter closed area of the current Kocatepe Animal Hospital, stated that these services will be used in a more modern way and provided in accordance with the requirements of the age in an area of 7,400 square meters with the new hospital to be built. Prof. Dr. Karakaş continued his speech as follows:
“Our new animal hospital, which will be built within the scope of the 2020 investment budget and planned to be put into service in 2022, will be one of the most important animal health institutions in the region. With the opening of our Kocatepe Animal Hospital, which is one of the vision projects of our university, our old building of 2,51 square meters will serve entirely in animal emergency practices and in this sense, a special unit will be created for the examination and treatment of stray animals. Animal emergency solutions will be one of the first in Turkey. Our 7,400 square meter service building, the foundation of which we laid, has 8 operating rooms, 5 intensive care units, 16 hospital treatment rooms, 4 emergency rooms, 15 examination rooms, 6 delivery rooms, 2 laboratories and 2 classrooms. I would like to thank the valuable deputies of Afyonkarahisar, the relevant bureaucrats of our Presidency and all our units for our Kocatepe Animal Hospital, which is an investment of 19 million TL, to reach this stage. I hope that our hospital will bring goodness to our city, our welfare and our scientific world.”
Intensive work is being done for cattle and sheep farming
MHP Afyonkarahisar Deputy Mehmet Taytak stated in his speech that the hospital, whose foundation was laid, also made great contributions to the human health system after its planning. Taytak said, “These types of services, which are looked at in the zoo area regarding human health and the future of humans and whose importance has recently become very evident, and the fact that these types of services are available in Afyonkarahisar are very happy for the users. Apart from this problem, a foundation was laid for the large animal shelter with the intensive work of our Honorable Deputies, and I hope that there will be a study regarding the small animal shelter in the future. I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this donation. I hope that this hospital will be beneficial for Afyonkarahisar and all humanity.”
An important project for the protection of animals and people
AK Party Afyonkarahisar Deputy İbrahim Yurdunuseven expressed the development of AKÜ and his pride in it. Yurdunuseven said, “Our university, which started with a building behind the rectorate, has graduated today in a very large area, with beautiful buildings, services, academicians and students. While the foundation of the animal hospital was being laid, I would like to thank our professors who contributed to the treatment and recognition of the resources that we say have no mouth but no tongue. We will also contribute something to humanity after this diagnosis and treatment we provide to animals. Because ultimately, we will also prevent diseases that will pass on to the animals’ stock.”
“Students’ knowledge and experience will increase”
AK Party Afyonkarahisar Deputy Ali Özkaya stated that when Afyonkarahisar is mentioned, Afyon’s clotted cream and sausage come to mind, and it was reported that clotted cream and sausage are animal products. Özkaya continued his words as follows:
“These animals need to be treated healthily and healthily and continue their lives; new breeds and developed breeds need to be added. Our Faculty of Veterinary Medicine is a valuable faculty for us. As our Rector Hoca said, it is one of the 3 main pillars of Afyon Kocatepe University. The more experience they have to solve concrete cases, the higher their knowledge base will be. The quality of the veterinarians graduated from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine increases much more, and as a result, it will contribute to the better positions of both our province and the animal geography in general. We have researched together to lay the foundation of this long-term hospital. We have repeatedly visited the Presidency of Strategy Presidency Naci Ağbal and our Minister with our Rector Hoca and our Deputies. Today, we are also seeing this beautiful technology. From now on, when we lay the foundations for buffalo husbandry at the Research Institute of our Veterinary Faculty and increase the number of buffalo, I wish to offer Afyon Cream as a standard to all of Turkey with the priority of our Veterinary Faculty.”
AKÜ is the biggest brand of Afyonkarahisar
Afyonkarahisar Governor Gökmen Çiçek stated in his speech that the biggest brand of Afyonkarahisar is Afyon Kocatepe University. Çiçek, who stated that Afyon Kocatepe University and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine are a university and faculty known and followed by Turkey, said, “With this foundation we will lay today, this new center of 7,400 square meters will be the most important center in terms of animal health. We are very happy and proud for this. In addition, Afyonkarahisar is ranked 2nd in the list of happy cities. We have a claim together with our honorable minister, honorable deputies, mayor and rectors. We want Afyonkarahisar to be a city where not only people but also animals and labor force, in short, all living beings are happy. That is what it is. In that respect, I attach great importance to this animal hospital. Nevertheless, I find the groundbreaking ceremony of this animal hospital within the framework of the ‘Year of Love’ that we declared this year, which is an example for all provinces, also meaningful and important today.”
“A very valuable facility for Afyonkarahisar”
AK Party Afyonkarahisar Deputy and former Minister of Forestry and Water Affairs Prof. Dr. Veysel Eroğlu also noted in his speech that AKÜ is a brand university. Drawing the results of one of the cornerstones of AKÜ being the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Prof. Dr. Eroğlu said, “As you know, Afyonkarahisar is the capital of sausage, Turkish delight, marble. It is the capital of taste. Therefore, animal husbandry and agriculture are very important here. These developments here are extremely important in the entire region, not only in Afyonkarahisar, but also in the construction of this facility that will serve the surrounding provinces. I sincerely thank all our deputies, our governor, our rector and our dean who contributed. In fact, it is a very important facility. I also thank Mr. Naci Ağbal. Currently, the Central Bank Governor was the President of the Presidency Strategy and Budget, which was presented by him. Therefore, he made a great contribution. This facility will cost 19 million liras. “It really is a beautiful facility. It has all kinds of facilities; laboratories, operating rooms, intensive care rooms, everything,” he said.
Eroğlu, who expressed his awareness in his analysis of the processes that animal health, which is a part of human health, has, said, “Health is very important. Unnecessary deterioration of human health is also very important for animal health. As it is known, 2020 was declared as the ‘Year of Love’ in Afyonkarahisar. We are already the ones produced by the Creator of the whole. This year’s ‘Year of Love’ will end next March, but it will be an example for all of Turkey. We embrace and pray for everyone everywhere. This is a human necessity.”
The groundbreaking ceremony continued with the prayer of Afyonkarahisar Provincial Deputy Mufti Harun Yılmaz after the opening speeches. Then, the first concrete of Kocatepe Animal Hospital was poured with the button pressed by the protocol products saying good luck and Bismillah.
Before the groundbreaking ceremony, AK Party Afyonkarahisar Deputy Ali Özkaya and Metro Engineering Ltd. Şti. Owner Mustafa Özaydın and Metro Engineering Ltd. Şti. Deputy General Manager Fatih Bilir visited AKÜ Rector Prof. Dr. Mehmet Karakaş in his office.
