Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy attended the opening of Edirne Balkan History Museum.
In his speech at the opening of the bastion, which was used as a headquarters for the defense of Edirne during the Ottoman-Russian Wars and the Balkan Wars, Minister Ersoy said that history carries a duty and responsibility as much as it is a trust.
Underlining that protecting history is a duty of loyalty, Minister Ersoy continued as follows:
"We are fighting to be worthy of our civilization, which has been a guide to humanity from human sciences to spiritual values, to reduce even a bit of our debt of fidelity, which cannot be paid to our ancestors, by protecting history. If you forget your truth, you will have to live with the lies of others. We have never allowed this, we will not."
Stating that the Hıdırlık Bastion is the largest of the 24 bastions built to prevent an attack from the Balkans, and that Edirne defender Şükrü Pasha and his soldiers wrote an epic here, Ersoy stated that he commemorated the martyrs and veterans with mercy and respect.
600 Years of Turks in the Balkans will be told
Emphasizing that historical duty and responsibility comes from the glorious Turkish history, Minister Ersoy said:
"With this awareness, we started the restoration of the Hıdırlık Bastion in memory of the 100th anniversary of the Balkan Wars and completed it in accordance with its original form in 2015. Since we are reviving history, we wanted to bring the past to the present and leave it as a legacy to the future. Therefore, we made arrangements after the restoration to make Balkan History. We have realized the project of the museum.We have organized a total of 44 rooms, including 22 headquarters rooms, 4 corridors and 18 artillery rooms, in the Hıdırlık Bastion Balkan History Museum, which has a perimeter of 1800 meters and covers an area of 60 decares, as part of the exhibition-organization works. From the conquest in 1361 to the aftermath of the 1912-1913 Balkan Wars, the 600-year history of the Turks in the Balkans will meet with its visitors here.
Explaining that they have made an investment of approximately 51 million liras in Edirne, Minister Ersoy said, "I would like to express with pleasure that a very valuable work has been created at the point of Balkan history. All institutions and individuals who have contributed and supported both the restoration and museum works, and my esteemed colleagues. I hope that these works that we brought to our Edirne will be an inspiration especially for our children and young people, with an unwavering will to take over from the past, and they will move forward with self-confidence to the future." said.
It is planned to increase the number of tourists with accommodation
Stating that Edirne is one of the cities that receive the most tourists, but the tourists are in transit, Minister Ersoy also expressed that they aim to increase the number of tourists with accommodation with the work to be done with the master plan to be prepared.
Minister Ersoy stated that he commemorated the founder of Turkish museums, painter, archaeologist and thinker Osman Hamdi Bey, on the 179th anniversary of his birth.
CHP Deputy Okan Gaytancıoğlu, IYI Party Deputy Orhan Çakları, Chief Public Prosecutor Mustafa Çakmak, Trakya University Rector Prof. Dr. Erhan Tabakoğlu, AK Party Provincial President Belgin İba, MHP Provincial President Zakir Tercan, IYI Party Provincial President Ekrem Demir institution managers and protocol members attended.
Museum
In the museum where the items belonging to that period are exhibited, the period is tried to be reflected in the corridor and artillery rooms. The museum takes its visitors to that period with the sound infrastructure it offers, and the sounds of conflict and attack are heard while passing through the corridors.
With the observation terrace of the bastion, a panoramic view of the city is offered to the visitors.
Bonnets and concrete plasters were scraped in the Hıdırlık Bastion, one of the biggest defense bastions of the period in Edirne, which was restored and saved from the ruins. The soils on the rooms were removed and strengthened, and insulation was made.
The cistern and the continuation of the corridor were unearthed in the section with the corridor and the arsenal, and artillery places were arranged. Then, the works to organize the bastion with an area of 55 decares as a museum began.
The works initiated to transform the defense line in Yıldırım Mahallesi, 2.5 kilometers from the city center, into a museum have been completed.
In the bastion, which is used as the headquarters of Edirne defender Mehmet Şükrü Pasha in the museum, along with Şükrü Pasha, the intervention moment of the Red Crescent in the war is animated with silicone sculptures. There is also a statue of Fatih Sultan Mehmet in the bastion.
"Sultans passing through Edirne", "Ottoman architecture in the Balkans", "Balkans under Ottoman rule", "Conquest of Edirne", "Commanders passing through Edirne", "Balkan Wars diaries", "Dressing and feeding on the front", "In war" epidemics, immigrants" are explained with sound, video and graphics in the rooms in the headquarters building.
Minister Ersoy Examined the Restoration Works in Edirne
Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy started his visit to Edirne with a visit to the Governor's Office, where he visited the works under restoration and inspected them.
After meeting with Edirne Governor Ekrem Canalp, Minister Ersoy was appointed as the Provincial Chairman of the AK Party.
Minister Ersoy, who met with the party members, then visited the Selimiye Mosque to examine the restoration that will take 40 months by the General Directorate of Foundations. Minister Ersoy, who came to the mosque by passing through the historical Arasta, also chatted with the shopkeepers.
After receiving information about the restoration in the Selimiye courtyard, Minister Ersoy then moved on to the Macedonian Tower, which witnessed Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman civilizations and whose restoration was started within the scope of the "Edirne Old Clock Tower Restoration Project" by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Minister Ersoy, who examined the construction site, where the site was delivered to the contractor company and the restoration is aimed to be completed in 1 year, visited the inside of the tower and received information.
During his visit, Minister Ersoy was accompanied by Governor Ekrem Canalp, Deputy Aksal, Edirne Mayor Recep Gürkan, AK Party Provincial Chairman Belgin İba, MHP Provincial President Zakir Tercan.
(30.12.2021)
