The fifth Mongolian Young Leaders Program (“YLP”) has been successfully organized in Istanbul during  May 5th-8th, 2011 under the topic of “Urban Mongolia”. Twelve young Mongolian fellows from eight European countries were selected to participate in the Program, where they assessed and discussed the challenges and opportunities faced in the City of Ulaanbaatar, with the backdrop of Istanbul City.

TOPIC: URBAN MONGOLIA

The topic of YLP Istanbul 2011, “Urban Mongolia,” was addressed in two separate subtopics. The First topic, “Urban Planning,” addressed the physical infrastructure of Ulaanbaatar, learning from 8500 years long history of Istanbul, and the second topic, “Cultural Consumption,” assessed the soft side of urban life in Ulaanbaatar city. Choice of Istanbul city as a venue offered unparalleled opportunities and provided essential relevance to the topic.

Subtopic: Urban Planning, the tangible side (May 6th, 2011)

The city of Ulaanbaatar, a 21st century metropolis, faces number of challenges and issues that are in many ways similar to that of Istanbul. Mass migration, illegal dwellings in the city outskirts, shortages of basic infrastructure, road and smog problems etc cripple both cities for decades. During the session on “Urban Planning” held at Bilgi University’s Dolapdere Campus students outlined the problems and offered a solution on a particular issue of capturing Power Plant fly-ash and using it as an industrial base material.

Guest speaker Mr. Ulas Akin from Istanbul Municipal Planning Center (IMP) gave eye opening understanding on the process and dynamics of “Urban Planning”, the new ways of understanding the urban space as a platform for human interaction, the economic and political factors affecting it. Then the group visited the Municipal Planning Center’s office to have a look at how it all happens.One of the highlights from Mr. Akin’s presentation was that Urban Planning needs a holistic approach, considering not only the civil engineering part, but also to look at it the social, economic, cultural, and environmental components as well.

As a part of the program the participants were received by IETT (Istanbul Transportation Authority), Marmaray Project‘s (Tunnel connecting Europe and Asia) respective Vice Presidents and given City Transportation full circle tour experiencing real life demonstration of solutions and methods used in Istanbul to solve issues faced. Participants and organizing team greatly enjoyed the warm hospitality of Turkish people as they have visited various offices and museums.

Subtopic: Cultural Consumption, the intangible side (May 7th, 2011)

 “Cultural Consumption”, although rarely mentioned, raised important questions regarding Urban Mongolian cultural Identity such as the quality and diversity of culture we consume as well as the influence of Mongolian History and folklore on our modern culture.  This session was hosted at Bilgi University’s Silahtaraga Campus by Mrs. Asu Aksoy, Professor of Cultural Management of Bilgi University and Mrs. Giuliana Salmaso, an Italian Architect  who shared their views on Mongolia, based on presentations given by participants and conveyed valuable knowledge on Cultural Dynamics, stakeholders  affecting it, importance of art and cultural products overall in our everyday life. Mrs. Salmaso previously visited Ulaanbaatar,on several occasions, where she met with the City Administration and got acquainted with City of Ulaanbaatar Master Plan. “Art has always been contemporary”, “An artist always walks one step in front of the society”, “Popular culture allows the diversity and different strains of it to be produced whereas elitist approach becomes a bottleneck” were the memorable quotes of the day.

Examples of Santral Istanbul, as an important monument of physical infrastructure shifting into a platform for cultural products, IKSV (Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts), as a small but influential organization contributing to the cultural development of Istanbul and Istanbul Museum of Modern Arts as a relatively young but world famous museum gave inspiring and in depth knowledge to our participants on relatively new but actual phenomenon of developing world city taking its place as an international and vibrant cultural center.

Background

The program was organized under the auspices of President of Mongolia who sent his warm greetings and became possible with the support of MonAme Center, Embassy of republic of Turkey in Mongolia, Embassy of Mongolia in Turkey, Honorary Consulate of Mongolia in Istanbul as well as our generous sponsors PWC Mongolia, Asia Pacific Investment Partners and Liberty Partners LLC. Special thanks to Bilgi University in face of Mrs. Asu Aksoy, IMP in face of Mr. Ulas Akin, IETT, Marmaray Project in face of Mr. Ufuk Kinik, Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), Istanbuld Museum of Modern Arts.

The Mongolian Young Leaders Program being the initiative of MonAme Scientific Research Center traces its origins to Washington DC, USA where it was first held in 2009 and has since been successfully organized in Stanford University in 2010 and in Boston 2011.  The European sister program has been launched in 2010 and held in Milan, Italy under the topic of “Mongolia 2030: Our Vision”.