It gives me a great pleasure to welcome you all to the Turkish Embassy on our National Sovereignty and Childrens Day.
I could not have thought of a better way to celebrate this important event.
When my wife Evren and I arrived to Beijing a month ago, I found this project entitled Mysterious Turkey on my desk. I was excited on many accounts but primarily because of this projects ingenuity and concreteness as well as I was curious about its end result.
The Project is jointly organized by the Embassy and the Bureau for External Cultural Relations of Ministry of Culture of the Peoples Republic of China.
In November 2008, 5 Chinese artists participated in the 4th Art forum in Ankara, and then visited Istanbul.
These young artists have reflected their vision of Turkey on their canvases.
Through their creative work, Turkey with its long history, found another medium to reach out to Chinese people.
Before the cocktail I viewed the paintings one by one. I can say that artists did their magic again.
They managed to bring two largest cities in Turkey to this hall.
Their perspective and texture also took me to Istanbul and Ankara in a matter of few seconds.
This is the living proof of the strength of brush over digital cameras. I salute you for that. I would like to thank all the Artists, the Ministry of Culture and our Culture & Information Counsellor Mr. Oguzhan Yurteri for their tireless efforts for the realization of this project.
Before I turn the microphone over to Mr. Yu, I would like to conclude my words with a quotation from Ataturk- the Founder of our Republic on artists.
Gentlemen, in your life time you may become deputies, ministers, even the president but you will never make artists.
Therefore, let us appreciate these young people
I thank you.
