Prof. Dr. Fuat Oduncu, Clinical Lead and head of Department for Oncology (Cancer Treatment) of the renowned University of Munich (Germany), took the initiative to establish an international Assyrian medical conference on November 17-19, 2017 in the city of Munich.
As a wellknown Assyrian of the Syriac Orthodox Church, he aims to elevate the spoken Syriac Assyrian (Surayt) language to an academic level. Parts of the conference papers will be presented in the modern Assyrian (Surayt) language. For this he wishes to produce a medical and modernized dictionary in the Syriac language. Besides boosting the mother tongue to a professional level, Prof. Oduncu discusses the idea to hold a future conference in the homeland.
Medical doctors of Assyrian origin, as well as Indian members of the Syriac Orthodox Church who trace their roots back to Urhoy (Edessa/Urfa) from different countries and continents are invited to meet during these three days to form a union of physicians of different disciplines.
HH Patriarch Aphrem II Karim of the Syriac Orthodox will attend and bless the conference.
For years he has been thinking of this idea and got more motivation after he was invited to a Kurdish conference in Diyarbakir (Omid), that hosted about 600 participants. He gave his speech in the Syriac language. For this he received a medical dictionary in the Kurdish language as a gift. He then realized how different peoples without their own country are able to elevate their language to an academic level and hold international medical conferences.
This medical conference in Munich, which is open to the general public, is supported and in full cooperation by the Assyrian student association “Kano Suryoyo”, based in Paderborn (Germany).
Participation fee varies between 100 euro and 300 Euro, depending on which parts of the conference you wish to attend.