Erdoğan: We Now Have a Totally New Turkey That Doesn’t Otherize its Artists

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

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President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke at the Living Human Treasures Awards ceremony at the Presidency in Ankara today (February 11).

Referring to the attack that claimed the lives of five soldiers in Syria's Idlib, President Erdoğan said that he would announce the steps to be taken about the attack at the AKP weekly group meeting tomorrow.

CLICK - Five Soldiers Killed in Syria's Idlib

As reported by the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA), Erdoğan said, "We have dealt a resounding blow to the Syrian regime. They have been seriously punished, especially in Idlib, but this is not enough, there is more to come."

'Our arts and culture in the last 17 years...'

Addressing the audience at the award-giving ceremony, President and ruling AKP Chair Erdoğan stated, "Our country is located in the most fertile geography of the world in terms of living human treasures. The arts and culture in our country have thrived and taken on a unique character thanks to the change that has occured in the last 17 years."

Referring to technology as the source of "serious challenges to traditional arts", he continued his remarks as follows:

"Each and every forgotten branch of art not kept alive means that a ring of the chain binding us to our roots has broken. We try to lay claim to our living human treasures with the projects of our Ministry of Culture and Tourism and support of our municipalities. It is obviously not enough.

'Those who made Nazım Hikmet rot in jail...'

"In one period, we were faced with a cultural genocide to uproot the soul of our nation in the name of modernization. In the years of one-party rule, the mindset that captured our cultural life went to any lengths to expel our ancient values that they labeled as backward.

"Those who made [exiled poet] Nazım Hikmet rot in jail, those who massacred [writer] Sabahattin Ali were the jacobins of the one-party rule. From a country that used to ban music and books, we now have a totally new Turkey that does not otherize its artists.

"When our country was freed from the captivity of this mindset, the artists of the people have started to get their well-deserved attention. Turkey has now broken the chains of tutelage not only in politics, but in the field of culture as well. Never again will the shadow of tutelage be cast upon our nation, we will maintain our encompassing attitude." (TP/SD)