Quick take:
- Turkey’s Ankara University has become the first higher education institution to offer a course on NFTs in the country.
- The freshly-launched lecture is already being attended by high-ranking government officials according to local media.
- Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Özgül Özkan Yavuz, who was among the guests said “NFTs will trigger artistic creativity, skills and talents among youth”.
Turkey’s Ankara University has become the first higher education institution in the country to offer a course on non-fungible tokens (NFTs). According to local media, the freshly-launched course had already been attended by top-ranking officials in government.
Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Özgül Özkan Yavuz was one of the guests accompanied by Ali Taha Koç, head of the Turkish Presidency’s Digital Transformation Office.
Speaking during the launch ceremony, Yavuz said “we believe that NFT will trigger artistic creativity, skills and talents among youth. The step that Ankara University has taken by means of expanding awareness on NFT is very important.”
Necdet Ünüvar, the rector of the university started with an opening speech for the event saying the students will be excited by the introduction of an NFT course, which will be taught by Buğra Ayan.
Hürriyet daily reported that senior officials from the presidential administration and the culture ministry were present at the first class on NFTs.
Turkey has been one of the leading adopters of Web3 products. Last month, Ankara signed up to Open AR Cloud’s metaverse cities test project becoming the fourth city in the creative and Ai platform’s project after Los Angeles, Helsinki, and Bari.
The involvement of Ali Taha Koç, the most senior person at Turkish Presidency’s Digital Transformation Office also indicates a significant shift towards crypto amid previous resistance from President Erdogan.
Speaking at the event, Koç said the digital transformation office was working on several projects. “Do not think that NFT is just a matter of technology. There is also a legal dimension of NFT which will make us see how it will affect our business styles,” he added.
Ankara launched a digitization project in January dubbed BLD 4.0, which effectively launched the country’s leap into the metaverse.
However, Koç is adamant that the country will try to come up with its own term for NFTs and urged attendees to contribute in the coming up with the perfect name.
“Everyone should join and add an alternative name to NFT,” he stated, adding that he plans to launch a poll on social media.
The Turkish president has recently started to embrace crypto after ordering top government officials last month to study the metaverse and cryptocurrencies.
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