Prof. VEDAT ÇALIŞKAN

Prof. Dr. ÇALIŞKAN was born in Osmangazi (Bursa), Türkiye, and is a graduate of Bursa Erkek Lisesi (High School). He completed his Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD degrees in Human and Economic Geography at Istanbul University. Prior to his academic career, he worked as a geography teacher at Cağaloğlu Anadolu Lisesi (High School) and FMV Nişantaşı Işık High School, and between 1997 and 1999 served on the Geography Textbook Writing Commission of the Board of Education of the Turkish Ministry of National Education.

Co-authored with Seval ARAS, the high school textbook Human and Economic Geography of Türkiye was taught in secondary schools across Türkiye between 1999 and 2005. In 1999, Prof. Dr. ÇALIŞKAN initiated the “Geography Projects Competition” under the auspices of the Turkish Geographical Society, serving as its General Coordinator until 2005. In recognition of these contributions, he was awarded a Certificate of Commendation by the Ministry of National Education.

Prof. Dr. ÇALIŞKAN has been a faculty member at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University since 2005, where he was appointed Assistant Professor in 2005, Associate Professor in 2012, and Full Professor in 2017. Since 2018, he has served as Director of the Turkey–Russia Cooperation Research and Application Center (ÇOMÜ-TURUSIA) at the same university.

He has authored postgraduate theses and books on squatter housing in Bursa, the drainage of Lake Amik, and its environmental impacts. In 2013, he was a scholarship-funded visiting researcher at the Faculty of Geography and Environmental Protection, Mogilev State A. Kuleshov University (Belarus). Prof. Dr. ÇALIŞKAN has published extensively in the fields of Cultural Geography and Cultural Heritage, including numerous articles, conference papers, books, and book chapters.

Three of his principal research areas have attracted significant international attention. The first focuses on Anatolian Camel Breeding Culture, on which he has conducted comprehensive research; he is also a founding member of the Anatolian Camel Breeding Culture Federation. His second major research area examines the social and cultural lives of the White Russians who sought refuge in Gallipoli following the Bolshevik Revolution and lived there in forced exile between 1920 and 1923.

Prof. Dr. ÇALIŞKAN has received multiple certificates of appreciation for his contributions to Turkish–Russian academic and cultural relations. He was honored in 2017 by the Rossotrudnichestvo Federal Agency (Federal Agency for International Humanitarian Cooperation of the Russian Federation), Türkiye Representation, for his contributions to strengthening educational and cultural relations between Russia and Türkiye; in 2018 by the Russian National Pride Foundation for his extraordinary personal contributions to the cultural dialogue and shared cultural heritage between Türkiye and Russia; and by the Turkish–Russian Civil Forum, operating under the auspices of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, for his contributions to the development of Turkey–Russia relations and the international promotion of Türkiye (May, 2019). In 2025, he received a Certificate of Appreciation from the Rectorate of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University for his contributions to the promotion of Çanakkale through the exhibition “Gallipoli-1921: Turkish–Russian Brotherhood at 104”. In the same year, he was awarded a Certificate of Commendation by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation for his contributions to scientific cooperation between the Russian Federation and Türkiye.

Between 2014 and 2016, Prof. Dr. ÇALIŞKAN served as a Member of the UNESCO Ephesus Site Management Advisory Board. His third principal research area concerns fairs (panayirs), a topic on which he has conducted uninterrupted research since 2006. He has served as principal investigator for two projects on fairs, one national and one international. During the 2019–2020 academic year, he was a scholarship-funded visiting researcher at the Department of Geography, University of South Carolina, in connection with his research on fairs.

Acting on the conviction that several fairs in Türkiye possess the qualities of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), Prof. Dr. ÇALIŞKAN submitted, on 17 September 2019, the nomination dossier for the Pehlivanköy Fair to be included in the ICH Inventory, at a meeting jointly organized by the Kırklareli Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism and the Municipality of Pehlivanköy. Similarly, in 2016, he initiated the nomination process for the Anatolian Camel Breeding Culture and Camel Wrestling Traditions to be registered as Intangible Cultural Heritage, by submitting the relevant proposal dossier to the Çanakkale Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism.