The meeting titled “Rwanda’s Renaissance" took place in TEPAV with the participation of Rwanda’s Ambassador to Ankara H.E. Williams Nkurunziza and Prof. Dr. Ahmet Sedat Aybar.

The event was held with the cooperation of the Embassy of the Republic of Rwanda in Ankara and TEPAV at TEPAV building on Friday, December 13, 2019, and with attendance by national and international non-governmental organizations, representatives of public institutions, representatives of foreign missions, academics and students.

The event commenced with the opening speech of Ambassador Murat Ersavcı, Director Economic and Political Policy Center at TEPAV. Speaking of Rwanda's efforts to circumvent the genocide, Ersavcı asserted that Rwanda, which has entered a recovery phase following the genocide, has successfully continued this process and provided widespread justice so that tensions in the region do not happen again.

Following the welcoming remarks, Head of the Department of Economics and Finance at Istanbul Aydın University, Prof. Dr. Ahmet Sedat Aybar took to the stage to give his lecture titled “Rwanda Beyond the Genocide Against the Tutsi: A Lesson for Humanity”. Aybar began his speech by talking about Rwanda's economic development process. Pointing out that Rwanda is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, Aybar underlined that political stability and successful economic policies were behind this performance. When one looks at Rwanda's past, Aybar said, one can see that colonialism left a deep mark, and the effects of divide-and-conquer policies combined with economic collapse led to the genocide. Presently, Aybar asserted that the main reason of Rwanda's economic rise is not the recommended policies from international institutions like the IMF and the World Bank, but the implementation of their own national economic policies. Aybar concluded his speech by stating that Rwanda is on the right track economically and socially and devises its own future by its own hands.

After Prof. Dr. Ahmet Sedat Aybar, Ambassador of the Republic of Rwanda to Ankara His Excellency Williams Nkurunziza gave a speech titled “Rwanda’s Renaissance”. Ambassador Nkurunziza, who talked about Rwanda's recovery process after the genocide in 1994, asserted that at the beginning of the process, almost everyone called Rwanda a failed state, yet today Rwanda is named as the seventh most productive state by respective rating agencies. His Excellency added that Rwanda foresees a growth rate of 11 percent by the end of this year, achieved not only through economic planning but also social support. His Excellency also added that the parliament of Rwanda has the highest proportion of women in the World and that almost 50 percent of all the people working in SMEs and the Justice Ministry comprise of women. His Excellency’s presentation continued with a short post-genocide Rwanda-themed video demonstrating that Rwanda has overcome obstacles to growth abiding by three main facets; unity, accountability and thinking big. Ambassador Nkurunziza stated that there were difficulties in the process of seeking justice after the genocide and added that the solution was not found in seeking revenge or through foreign dependency, but in cohesive and inclusive national policy making and implementation as well as social alacrity. Ambassador Nkurunziza supported this idea by stating “There was no country in history that could develop independently with foreign aid.” His Excellency concluded his speech by saying that everyone should take on responsibility to achieve and sustain full independence.

The meeting came to a close with a Q&A session with the participation of H.E. Williams Nkurunziza and Prof. Dr. Aybar.