From the President of the Foundation

23 March 2018

Knowing the history means knowing the national capacity and national flaws. Moving forward and taking turns accordingly, knowing what will bush out from which seed is a power that cannot be gained with no other thing. As the ones blowing the wind of a global civilization exceeding 1400 years in Anatolia for the last one thousand years, we know how these seeds, which were moved with this breeze, blossomed up all across the world. We want to remind and show one more time with the biennial that we prepared by putting our classical arts in the center that the accumulation of thought and art that we created had a considerable value and occupied an extensive place within the cultural accumulation of human history.    

Making the organization like Yeditepe Biennial would befit to Turkey, which is the pioneer of the Islamic geography in the cultural and art activities, and it did. As the “Ehl-i Hiref”, which we determined as the theme, used to be patronized by the state in the past, likewise ehl-i hiref of this age working on this theme is patronized by the Presidency today. We would like to present our thanks to our esteemed President, who took the Yeditepe Biennial under his protection, as the indication and symbol of the national power, and to the Fatih Municipality and to its esteemed mayor Mustafa Demir collaborating with us in this effort, to our artists that we have broken grounds together, and to all people, institutions and organizations providing us financial and moral support and contribution, and we would like to share our gratification and pride that we feel for being a part of such a beauty as the Classical Turkish Arts Foundation.

President of the Classical Turkish Arts Foundation

Ahmet Özel