EKOL Maritime Training Center Hosts Historian İlber Ortaylı for Talk on Turkish Naval Heritage – MARSIMA

Turkey’s maritime education community turned its attention away from tonnage figures and newbuild orders for an afternoon, as the EKOL Denizcilik Eğitim Merkezi (EKOL Maritime Training Center) opened its conference hall to one of the country’s best-known public historians. Prof. Dr. İlber Ortaylı, a familiar voice in Turkish cultural and academic circles, delivered a talk titled ‘From Çaka Bey to Today: Turkish Seafaring,’ tracing the arc of Turkish maritime activity from the medieval Anatolian beylik era to the modern shipbuilding and shipping industry.

The session, held at 14:00 local time, drew an audience of maritime professionals, cadets and educators, reflecting growing interest among Turkish shipyards and training institutions in framing today’s industrial achievements within a longer historical narrative. Ortaylı, known for making Ottoman and Turkish history accessible to general audiences, used the figure of Çaka Bey — the eleventh-century Turkish emir credited with founding one of the first Turkish naval forces in the Aegean — as a starting point for a broader discussion of how seafaring traditions evolved through the Seljuk, Ottoman and Republican periods into the export-driven shipbuilding sector Turkey has today.

For EKOL, a training center that prepares seafarers and technical staff for both domestic and international fleets, hosting a historian of Ortaylı’s profile is also a branding exercise. Maritime training providers in Turkey increasingly position themselves not just as technical schools but as custodians of a national seafaring identity — a narrative that resonates with shipowners and charterers abroad who are weighing Turkish-flagged tonnage, Turkish-trained crews, or newbuild contracts with Turkish yards.

While the event itself did not involve commercial announcements, ship deliveries or contract signings, its timing is notable. Turkish shipyards have been reporting strong export order books in 2023, and training centers are under pressure to supply qualified seafarers to match fleet growth. Cultural programming of this kind, organizers suggest, is intended to reinforce recruitment and retention within the sector by connecting technical careers to a longer national story.

Why it matters

For international shipowners and yards evaluating Turkish maritime partners, events like this signal how training institutions are investing in identity and morale alongside technical curricula — a soft factor that can influence crew quality and retention over time. It also underscores a broader trend of Turkish maritime stakeholders using historical narrative to market the sector’s credibility to foreign buyers and charterers. Expect more such cultural programming as Turkish yards and training centers compete for international recognition.

Source: 7Deniz, 2023-11-21T13:52:00 — https://www.7deniz.net/video/prof-dr-ilber-ortayli-caka-beyden-gunumuze-turk-denizciligi-baslikli-soylesi