Under the leadership of Bülbülzade Foundation President Turgay Aldemir, Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Fatma Şahin, Consul General in Aleppo Muammer Hakan Cengiz, and Gaziantep provincial directors came together and agreed on a joint strategy for the educational and cultural revival of Syria.
We brought together the three pillars of society—public institutions, local governments, and civil society—under the roof of the Bülbülzade Foundation to shape the future of Syria. Hosted by our Foundation President Turgay Aldemir, we gathered with Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Fatma Şahin, Consul General in Aleppo Muammer Hakan Cengiz, the Provincial Mufti, the Provincial Director of National Education, and representatives of our public institutions. At this table, we did not merely hold a meeting; we decided to initiate a revival movement guided by education, culture, art, and religion.
WE HAVE BEEN IN THE FIELD SINCE DAY ONE
As the Bülbülzade Foundation, we have never changed our stance since the very first day the war broke out in Syria. We did not only deliver humanitarian aid; we crowned our thousand-year-old brotherhood with a vision of civilization on the ground. For more than ten years, we brought together the vast experience we accumulated in every neighborhood, every camp, and every heart with the strength of our state and local administrations at this table.
Through the Anatolian Cultural Centers (AKM) we opened in Jarablus, Azaz, Afrin, Al-Bab and Aleppo, we brought generations emerging from war together with the healing power of art and literature. We provided thousands of trainees with language and arts education, vocational training, social support, and educational seminars. Through the Common Future Meetings, where we brought together the intellectual accumulation of Türkiye and Syria, we directly built that great vision of a “Common Future” against the language of hatred.
FULL CONSENSUS FOR SYRIA
Especially in Gaziantep and throughout the country, we mobilized all our resources to ensure access to education for our Syrian brothers and sisters, striving to ensure that not a single child remains out of school. In the field, we shaped the practical infrastructure of revival not only with theoretical projects but also with the educational stations we established, the logistical support networks we created, and the direct relationships we built with local communities.
We meticulously carried out neighborhood-based rehabilitation efforts and cultural integration programs to repair the social fabric devastated by the war. During the meeting, together with our Consul General in Aleppo and our administrative authorities, we reached full consensus that the educational and cultural infrastructure is indispensable for Syria to stand on its own feet.
By combining the strength of public authority with the flexibility of our foundation, which reaches the capillaries of the field, we are initiating a new era that will make the social revival in the region permanent.
IT IS TIME TO REWRITE THE FUTURE
Emphasizing that revival is only possible through the reconstruction of hearts, our Foundation President Turgay Aldemir stated:
“By uniting the social experience of our municipality and the administrative power of the public sector with the field dynamism of our foundation, we will continue this journey beyond the border until justice, compassion, and peace prevail once again. For us, revival is not only about rebuilding buildings, but also about rebuilding minds and hearts. There is no ‘other’ on these lands. We are Moses, and the people of Syria are Aaron. Together we will raise this ancient geography to its feet again. Now is not the time to complain, but the time to rewrite the future with the language of children and brotherhood.”
