Preserving historical and cultural heritage our responsibility: Erdoğan

ISTANBUL

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Jan. 13 said preserving the historical and cultural heritage of the ancestors is their responsibility.

“We see it as our responsibility toward our ancestors to protect the historical and cultural heritage of our country, particularly of Istanbul,” Erdoğan said at the opening ceremony of Rami Library.

Erdoğan said they had planned Rami not only as a library but also as a cultural center, where many activities can be done, and the facility will serve book lovers, especially the youth, 24 hours a day, every day of the week.

They will import books from all over the world and make the international feature of Rami Library much stronger, the president stressed.

“We are approaching step by step towards our goal of welcoming the 100th anniversary of our republic with 100 new libraries,” he stated.

Erdoğan emphasized that they are working day and night for a Türkiye that is not a follower but a pioneer, producing, not consuming, what is offered to it in culture like other fields.

“We worked and tried to encompass the whole of our nation without any discrimination on the basis of equal opportunity. We believe that development is a whole and that education, culture and art come first,” he stated.

The government has carried out radical reforms at all levels, from pre-school to university and reconfigured the entire system while expanding universities in the country’s all 81 provinces, he said.

“We fortified our culture and art infrastructure. We stood by everyone who added value to our country. We especially encouraged our people of culture and arts. No one can deny that we have achieved great success in eliminating the infrastructure deficiencies of our country in the past 20 years,” Erdoğan stated.