Ortaylı calls for book donation

As the damages to Galatasaray University continue to be assessed following a devastating fire Jan. 22, historian İlber Ortaylı has called on citizens to donate books to help rebuild the school’s library, which he founded, daily Hürriyet reported yesterday.

Ortaylı had originally founded the 6,000-book library through his own book donations, but thanks to the fire almost the entire library was turned to ash. “I have founded the library in the faculty of law on the second floor of the building, which was demolished. I donated 6,000 books to the library. Some of the books can be found [again], but it is very difficult to replace some of them. [A total of] 5,000 books in the library burned. But in my opinion, all of them have gone because those that did not burn are wet and damaged,” Ortaylı said.

The university’s historical building caught fire on Jan. 22 for reasons still unknown.