By News Centre
Necmeddin Bilal Erdoğan, a member of the High Advisory Board of
the Turkish Youth Foundation (TÜGVA), said that the values that
made these lands a homeland and bind the nation together must be
passed on to future generations, adding that TÜGVA reached 700,000
young people through its summer schools.
Speaking at the TÜGVA İzmir Summer Schools Final Program held at
the ancient city of Ephesus, Erdoğan said Ephesus is one of the
important centers demonstrating that Anatolia has been home to
ancient civilizations.
Emphasizing the need to preserve the values of these lands,
Erdoğan said: “If we want to be able to say that these lands will
remain our homeland for another thousand years, then we must
preserve for another thousand years the values that made these
lands our homeland, connected us to these lands and made us
brothers here, just as we have preserved them for a thousand years.
If we lose these values, if our unity falls apart, if we do not
live by the values that made these lands our homeland, we cannot
call these lands our homeland for another thousand years. It is not
that easy.”
Erdoğan noted that the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba had created
a significant civilization on the Iberian Peninsula for 800 years,
saying:
“What is there on the Iberian Peninsula today? There is Spain.
Is there a Muslim minority? Almost none. Are there remnants of the
Islamic civilization there? Almost none. They have virtually erased
it. They carried out genocide, massacres, destruction — whatever
was necessary — so that there would never again be Muslims on the
Iberian Peninsula, so that Islam would not come to mind, and so
that no one who would preserve that heritage would ever return
there.”
Erdoğan stressed that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had set the
goal of the “Century of Türkiye” before young people, emphasizing
that young people must embrace national and spiritual values in
order to achieve these objectives.
Bilal Erdoğan said: “Therefore, if we want to preserve these
lands for another thousand years, our President has opened a path
before us. He called it the Century of Türkiye. If we are going to
move forward with strong steps toward our President’s goal of the
Century of Türkiye, then we must first embrace the values that made
these lands our homeland. TÜGVA reminded 700,000 young people of
these values through its summer schools this year. While reminding
them of these values, all our brothers and sisters who participated
also had a good time.”
Describing TÜGVA as a new-generation youth foundation, Erdoğan
said it brings together young people working to increase beneficial
initiatives in Türkiye and around the world.
Erdoğan said TÜGVA would continue reaching more young people,
adding: “Every summer, the Turkish Youth Foundation will continue
reaching more of our young brothers and sisters and children, until
the goal of the Century of Türkiye ceases to be a utopia and
becomes a reality for us. Therefore, amid all the turmoil in the
world, while genocide is taking place in Gaza, while the
Russia-Ukraine war continues, while the America/Israel-Iran war
continues, and while unrest appears to be increasing around the
world, we will continue to sing our song.”