Turkish president celebrates the World Art Day

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

President Abdullah Gül broadcast a message to celebrate the World Art Day and said that he hoped the day would mark a will to establish peaceful relations. AP photo

Turkish President Abdullah Gül celebrated World Art Day and said the day was an opportunity to give thanks to artists for the treasure of the arts.

April 15 is celebrated as World Art Day worldwide because the date is the birthday of Renaissance mastermind Leonardo Da Vinci.

President Gül said in his message that he hoped the day would mark a will to establish peaceful relations between different cultural groups worldwide under the uniting force of art.

 “Anything that affects societies has worked to transform art, because it is the result of the working hands and working minds. This mutually transformative force between arts and societies has worked in the long term as a transformative force that made the two poles unite as one,” he said.

He said Turkey had made a fine contribution of artistic production in universal philosophy and arts in the past and present, adding that art had always had an important place in Turkish social and daily life without losing its force throughout the centuries.