President Erdoğan spoke at the 'Loyalty to the Book: Bookbinding Art and Restoration Exhibition' Program in Tophane-i Amire

President Erdoğan made statements at the "Loyalty to the Book: Bookbinding Art and Restoration Exhibition" Program held in Tophane-i Amire.

The highlights of President Erdoğan's statements are as follows:

Dear ladies and gentlemen; I greet you with my most heartfelt feelings, respect and affection, and I feel the pleasure of being with you on the occasion of this meaningful exhibition at Tophane-i Amire.

I hope that the exhibition 'Loyalty to the Book, Bookbinding Art and Restoration', which we opened on the occasion of Eksim Holding's 40th anniversary, will be beneficial. On behalf of my country and nation, I would like to thank Eksim Holding for their unique contributions to the Turkish economy for 40 years. I congratulate you and the holding employees on their 40th anniversary and wish you many more years full of success.

On this occasion, today I once again pray to God's mercy for my dear friends Abdullah and Fahrettin Tivnikli, whose memories I always remember with longing. The late Abdullah and Fahrettin Tivnikli, in addition to being excellent traders and connoisseurs, were also foundation people who mobilized their earnings for the nation, the country, and the oppressed and victimized. They were two lovers of science who were closely interested in the issues in the Islamic geography, read and wrote, and never severed their ties with science and books. I pray that God rests both of their souls and rests their souls in heaven.

President Erdoğan: "We are the owners of a rich cultural heritage" | video

Mr. Ebubekir just briefly talked about the founding values of both the ISAR Foundation and Eksim Holding, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. It is admirable that the awareness of responsibility towards the nation, to which the late Abdullah and Fahrettin Tivnikli gave great importance, is maintained. I have to emphasize this here: I am very pleased to see that their legacy and trust is being duly taken care of, as it is here today. I also find very valuable the work carried out by our Abdullah Tivnikli ISAR Foundation successfully in different fields, especially education and publishing, which enriches our world of ideas and hearts. I would like to express my gratitude to all our bookbinders who meticulously revived the works in the exhibition for their efforts, and I wish health to their hands and hearts.

"THE THOSE WHO HAVE NO PAST HAVE NO PAST"

Dear friends; We all know that those who have no past cannot have a past. There is no future that can be built by those who are indifferent to their past, those who are disconnected from their past, and especially those who deny their past. As a nation, we are the owners of a truly great civilization, a deep-rooted history and a rich cultural heritage. Behind our history, civilization and culture lies a unique knowledge, some of which derives from the works exhibited here. This strong accumulation has kept us standing for centuries; It gains its real meaning with the book and the library.

"NATIONS ALSO LIVE, SURVIVE AND HOLD ON WITH THEIR ROOTS"

As you know, the example of a plane tree is often used when describing our civilization. Just like civilizations, nations and people live with their roots, survive with their roots, and hold on to life and history with their roots. Here is the strongest vein that connects us to our roots as a nation and as an individual; These are our books filtered from the alembic of our connoisseurs of knowledge, ideas and hearts. It is not in vain that those who wanted to cut off our nation's ties with its roots targeted our books and libraries for a while. This country has seen days when its most valuable documents were sold to foreigners for scrap for three cents apiece, for the purpose of making paper pulp. The most shameful book massacres; It took place during coup periods when national will and democracy were suspended. Most recently, on February 28, 4,500 works, 500 of which belonged to the personal library of Sultan Abdulhamid II, were thrown away from the Istanbul University Library by the tutelary administrators of the period. These mistakes made in the past have a large share in the background of the cultural desertification that we unfortunately feel the effects of in some areas today.

In this respect, I consider it particularly important that our ISAR Foundation protects our history, culture, civilizational acquis and works that connect us to our roots. I say this especially for this reason: Look, we are a nation that has created exceptional works in the art of bookbinding and trained world-famous bookbinders. The late Samiha Ayverdi describes our bookbinding art and artists, which we honor as a nation, as follows:

'Bookbinding, which opened its eyes to the world as a Central Asian art, covered the Seljuk and Ottoman centuries while continuing on its way by shining light on Europe. The binding and the illumination decorating it were literally the shapes and colors of the artist's inner world reflected on the paper and leather. These were not pictures or shapes, but rather the artist's own words, his own voice, his own intentions and the expression of his heart. Since labor on books carries a kind of sanctity in the Muslim East, the artist who bends over the book would work on his work with ecstasy and could not get enough of embellishing it in a kind of pleasure of worship.'

Yes; The art of bookbinding and bookbinding is so valuable and important to us. I also congratulate you for bringing back to life by restoring more than a thousand works in the bookbinding shop you established within our foundation. Likewise, I wholeheartedly congratulate you for your efforts to revive our almost forgotten bookbinding art.

With these thoughts, I hope that the 'Loyalty to the Book, Bookbinding Art and Restoration' exhibition will be beneficial once again for the 40th anniversary of Eksim Holding. I wholeheartedly congratulate all my brothers who contributed to the program. Once again, I greet you with love and respect, and I entrust you all to God. Thank you, live long, stay healthy.