President Erdoğan: Children’s ears should ring not with explosions but with their peers’ cheerful voices as is the case here right now
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended the April 23rd TRT Children’s Festival at Başakşehir Nation’s Garden in Istanbul.
Making a speech at the event held on the occasion of April 23 National Sovereignty and Children’s Day, President Erdoğan noted that the festival had hosted over 30 thousand children from 120 different countries since its outset in 1979.
Pointing out that the occasions as part of which foreign children used to be hosted in Türkiye would resume starting from the following year after a compulsory break caused by the pandemic, President Erdoğan said: “Given the developments taking place in our near abroad, we are deeply saddened over the children living there. To our south, a tragedy is raging on in which tens of thousands of children have been killed, hundreds of thousands of children have been left an orphan, and tens of thousands of children have gone missing all across the world, particularly in Europe. To our north, we are worried to see that the war, which has already completed its second month, continues to inflict painful outcomes. I believe that during such times, we need, more than ever, the pure love in children’s hearts as well as their smile, cheer and touch which beautify our lives.”
Describing children as the primary source of Türkiye’s motivation for efforts aimed at ceasing wars and ending crises as well as expanding the climate of security and peace, President Erdoğan stated: “Children’s ears should ring not with explosions but with their peers’ cheerful voices as is the case here right now. Children’s hearts should beat not with anxiety but with love, hope and enthusiasm. Children should sleep not in the claw of fear but in the arms of serenity. It is this conviction and this dream that lies behind the fact that April 23rd, the opening day of the Grand National Assembly in Ankara, and therefore the most critical milestone in our national struggle, was gifted to our children.”
Remembering with gratitude all the heroes to whom the nation owes its future and independence--first and foremost Ghazi Mustafa Kemal, the Commander-in-Chief of the National Struggle and the founder of the Republic who gifted this festival to children, President Erdoğan wished Allah’s mercy upon all the heroes who died a martyr’s death in the north of Syria as well as in the Operation Claw-Lock conducted in the north of Iraq.
