AYA Art and Thought Foundation opened with a ceremony held in Üsküdar

Many names from the world of science, culture and art, such as Beşir Ayvazoğlu, İhsan Fazlıoğlu, Hasan Akay, Mustafa Özel, İrfan Çalışan, Mahmut Bıyıklı, Mehmet Zelka, Uğur Canbolat, Adem Yazıcı, Eray Sarıçam, Özcan Ünlü, Hümeyra Yabar, Selman Nuriler and Şamil Kucur, as well as a large student community attended the opening of the foundation.

Poet A. Ali Ural, one of the founders of the foundation, told AA correspondents that they used the Turkish tent as a symbol and saw the foundation as a cultural center, adding, "We cannot spread light around us without returning to our cultural resources and getting to know ourselves again. Osman Gazi established a world empire from that tent with this spirit. We set out with the intention of establishing a cultural tent that would illuminate its surroundings."

Ural stated that they believe that comprehensive cultural studies should be carried out, such as updating the resources that constitute the Turkish-Islamic civilization, and noted the following:

"Our wish is for writers and intellectuals who are at peace with their own values ​​to shoulder this burden and become opinion leaders of society. AYA Art and Thought Foundation is trying to create a national platform for these artists and intellectuals. There will be art and thought workshops and original writing workshops. Apart from this, conferences and panels will be held regularly. Hopefully, this will be an area where issues related to art and culture are discussed."

Ural, who pointed out that they wanted the AYA Art and Thought Foundation to bring together masters and apprentices, said that they were waiting for those who wanted to gain experience in writing, be equipped with national culture and examine their history with a lively perspective.

The lawyer Dr. Ramazan Arıtürk, one of the founders of the foundation, referred to the words of the first President of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegović, "If art is silent, humanity will be silent," and said, "People living under other cultures do not have their own suns and moons. Therefore, we are opening this foundation with the aim of preserving our own cultural world, our own cultural accumulation, our acquis, our faith, our morality, our values ​​and remaining loyal to them, to produce new cultural people and to have these cultural people build our future."

Arıtürk, who drew attention to the fact that children who are fed with the cultural products of others and who are not raised with their own cultural values ​​experience identity conflict and cannot become individuals who are beneficial to society, continued his words as follows:

"As a lawyer, I can easily state this. I see that children who were not raised with their own cultural values ​​commit more crimes, experience identity conflicts and ultimately become harmful people instead of being beneficial individuals to society. If we look at children who commit crimes, you will see that children who were not nourished by their own cultural world commit more crimes. Others' cultural products are destroying us. Others' cultural products are obscuring our own sky, our own light, our own sun."

Underlining that AYA Art and Thought Foundation will be an environment where people can breathe culturally, Arıtürk expressed their happiness due to the intense participation at the opening.

The foundation's opening ceremony ended with a group photo of the participants and the presentation of gifts.