President Erdoğan attended the Foundation Week Celebration Program held at Beştepe Nation Congress and Culture Center and made a speech.

Erdoğan, who started his speech by greeting the participants, expressed his great pleasure in hosting the foundation representatives at the Presidential Complex, the “house of the nation”, on the occasion of the 2026 Foundation Week.

Touching on the importance of the foundation tradition in the geography of the heart, Erdoğan thanked those who devoted their time and resources to charity works without expecting anything in return and said:

I hope that the events to be organized throughout the week with the theme of ‘Foundation Civilization in Architecture and Elegance’ will be beneficial for our country, our nation and all members of our foundation civilization. Architecture, elegance, foundation and civilization; When we look at these four concepts in the theme, we see that they all complement, nourish, enlarge and enrich each other. Because the treasure of history, culture and identity we inherited; It has brought together architecture with elegance, crowned elegance with foundation services, and transformed the foundation acquis into a feast of civilization that is unique in the world.

“WE HAVE ARTWORKS THAT ARE REMINISCENTS OF MY ANCESTORS ON THREE CONTINENTS”

The most enthusiastic and aesthetic elements of this feast are; It is clearly and strikingly embodied in the heirloom works of our ancestors on three continents. Our mosques, madrasahs, libraries, hospitals; Similarly, our fountains, aqueducts, almshouses, inns, bridges, caravanserais and many more are signs of our foundation civilization that opens a new window to humanity.

At the same time, these works; a high style, a perfected aesthetics; An elite imagination blended with justice, virtue and morality; They were the most concrete manifestations of the motto ‘Service to the public is service to God’. Our foundation culture, which aims to serve humanity, the ‘sublime of the universe’ created with a perfect divine design, is one of the most beautiful characteristics of our nation. Therefore, it is of critical importance for all of us to protect this culture, which is a trust, to keep alive the universe of meanings and values ​​contained in these works and to pass all these on to future generations. Our General Directorate of Foundations, which celebrates its 102nd anniversary this year, successfully undertakes such an important task with a very high level of consciousness. We congratulate the 102nd anniversary of our General Directorate; On this occasion, I wholeheartedly congratulate our General Directorate of Foundations, which brings together the heritage of our ancestors with our children and takes care of the heirloom works.

“WE WILL OPEN OUR 202 FOUNDATION WORKS”

We opened 101 foundation works during last year’s Foundation Week celebration. Today, we will hold the mass opening of 202 foundation works, the restoration of which was completed within the last year, both at home and abroad. Soon, with live connections, we will cut the ribbons of our Grand Mosque in Kahramanmaraş, Beyazıt Madrasa Turkish Foundation Calligraphy Museum, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Foundation University Topkapı Campus Faculty of Engineering and Art Design and Architecture Faculties, and Hacı Mahmut Bey Mosque in Bitola, North Macedonia. I wish you good luck in advance.

I would like to congratulate all our institutions, contractor companies, workers and engineers, architects and project experts who worked devotedly in the field, who contributed to the maintenance, repair and revival of these works. I remember with mercy the founders and patrons of each of our 202 works, and all our elders who contributed to these structures. I thank God for allowing you and us to protect the legacy of our ancestors until today. Hopefully, from now on, we will carry the traces and seals of our ancestors; Reflecting the spirit and knowledge of our past full of glory and honor; We will continue to cherish these values ​​that make our nation a nation. I pray that God will help us.

President Erdoğan: “We will cherish the values ​​that make our nation a nation” | Video

“WE ARE THE OWNERS OF A TRADITION THAT IS STANDING OUT IN THE WORLD”

I would like to underline one thing in particular here. Look, in our culture and in our spiritual roots, charity and grace are incomplete concepts without the other. These characteristics have literally permeated, permeated and incorporated all the values ​​that constitute the essence of our national and spiritual identity, from our foundation tradition to our architectural masterpieces. Courtesy and politeness, which are the reflection of elegance in the behavioral plan, are also directly related to charity. We clearly witness this truth in the following hadiths of the Sultan of Hearts. Our guide to life and guidance, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), said: ‘Whoever is given a share of kindness, that is, kindness and politeness, means that someone has received his share of goodness. ‘A person who is deprived of kindness and politeness has not received his share of goodness.’

Yes, we are a nation that believes in the good news of Almighty Allah: ‘Whoever does even the smallest amount of good will receive his reward.’ Our charitable activities have been fleshed out in the most beautiful and elegant way by our foundations; We are the owners of a tradition that has distinguished itself in the world in this field. We see these features concentrated especially in art and architecture, especially in our architectural structures and foundation works that are examples of elegance.

Here, I would like to share a very interesting anecdote with you and our brothers and sisters who are currently following us in front of their screens. Suleymaniye Social Complex, described by the late Nurettin Topçu as “The soul of Islam’s melody that will pass on to eternity”, is, as you know, not only a temple dedicated by Suleiman the Magnificent, but also an extraordinarily aesthetic work of art. It is rumored that after the completion of the Süleymaniye Mosque, Suleiman the Magnificent had a dream. In his dream, the apocalypse has come to an end and the scales have been set at the judgment day. There is the Süleymaniye Social Complex on one side of the scale, and a cup of ayran on the other. The pan with a cup of buttermilk weighs more on the scale. Sultan Suleiman, known for his sensitivity towards charity and justice, tells this dream to Ebussuud Efendi, the Shaykh al-Islam of the time. When Ebussuud Efendi became aware of the details of the dream, he asked for permission and began to investigate the wisdom of this dream. After a while, he meets with the masters who took part in the construction of the mosque.

The masters told Ebussuud Efendi the following: “It was a very hot summer day. We were working in sweat and wanted to build the mosque as soon as possible. That day, an old grandmother came with a glass of ayran in her hand. She offered us the ayran from her glass, saying, ‘My children, you are tired, have some refreshment with this cold ayran.’ We drank the ayran, felt very relaxed, and said many blessings to that grandmother, saying ‘May God bless you.’ He said, ‘May God make it easy’ and took the empty cup and walked away.” Listening to this incident, Ebussuud Efendi appears before the sultan again and explains the situation. The wisdom in the dream is extremely clear: A cup of buttermilk distributed to workers and craftsmen with sincerity and sincerity, with the sole purpose of gaining God’s consent, this humble charity; It is more valuable than the Suleymaniye Complex in the sight of God Almighty.

I believe that we all have very important things to learn from this story. As today’s representatives of our foundation civilization, you fulfill a very lofty responsibility. From health to education, from social solidarity to aid activities, you keep alive the unique values ​​of our nation, which is an example to the world. For this, I thank each and every one of you on behalf of myself and my nation; I pray that God will turn your efforts into blessings and blessings.

Another feature of our foundation culture is that it covers every aspect and every phase of individual and social life. Thanks to the foundations within the borders of the Ottoman Empire, a man is born in a dedicated house and grows up in a dedicated cradle. He earns his living from the foundation forests. He eats and drinks from foundation properties. He reads foundation books and teaches in a foundation-funded madrasah. He receives his fee from the foundation administration. When he died, he was placed in a dedicated coffin and buried in a dedicated cemetery. This determination, made in the past, is extremely simple, striking and accurate. From supplying ink to students who have no ink left in their dipsticks, to repairing the tombs of martyrs and companions; From the protection of plants, seeds and storks on the migration route to the treatment of orphaned patients, our foundation tradition has such a strong, inclusive, encompassing and embracing structure.

“OUR FOUNDATIONS CONTINUE TO BE A SOURCE OF JOY OF OUR NATION”

Our foundations, which focus on all living and non-living beings, continue their work with dedication and sincerity today. Even though those who have no political direction other than money, profit and personal interests target our foundations and associations at every opportunity; They cannot make their hearts devoted to serving humanity give up this holy struggle. Our foundations, which operate in different fields, from raising a youth committed to national and spiritual values ​​to helping the oppressed wherever they are, continue to be a source of pride for our nation. He does not speak out against those who steal, shout, and extort the city he rules by saying “We are collecting scholarships for students”; I only leave those who hinder those who sincerely run for the children of this nation to the conscience of the apocalypse.