Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan talked at an event titled “A Tribute to Books: The Art of Bookbinding and Restoration Exhibition" that took place in Istanbul’s Tophane-i Amire. (AA Photo)
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has underlined the notion that those who deny their past cannot build a future and urged the nation to protect Türkiye’s rich and unique civilization.
“Those who have no past can have no future. One who has severed ties with their past has no future to build. Behind our culture lies a wealth of knowledge, a part of which emanates from the works exhibited here,” Erdoğan said at an event in Istanbul on Sept. 4.
The event he attended was titled “A Tribute to Books: The Art of Bookbinding and Restoration Exhibition” and took place in Istanbul’s Tophane-i Amire.
“When describing our civilization, the example of a plane tree is often given. Just like trees, civilizations hold fast by their roots,” Erdoğan said.
People live by their roots, and civilizations live by their roots, the president stated, stressing “The strongest vein connecting us to our roots as a nation and as individuals is our books, filtered through the refinement of our people of science, thought and heart.”
The most significant book massacres occurred during periods of military coups and thousands of books were thrown into the thrash during Feb. 28 military intervention in 1990s, Erdoğan said, “It is no coincidence that those who once sought to cut our nation’s ties with its roots targeted our books.”
“Today, these mistakes play a role in the background of cultural desertification in certain areas,” the president said, calling on the people to exert efforts to keep the link between today and past alive.
“That’s why books and our libraries are very important and playing a key role to this end,” he stated.
