JULY 15 PHOTOGRAPH EXHIBITION OPENING PROGRAM

8 JULY 2021

MÜSİAD HEAD OFFICE

Honourable Governor

Esteemed President and members of the July 15 Association,

My Esteemed Members of the MÜSİAD Board of Directors,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

At the opening of this meaningful exhibition of ours, I greet you all with respect; welcome.

Esteemed Guests,

For every single Turkish citizen, 15 July 2016 is the glorious history of the struggle in which we, as a nation, thwarted a treacherous attempt aimed at writing a black page for our country, and which we set forth as a manifestation of the fact that we hold freedom, love of the homeland, democracy and the honour of the country above all else.

On that dark night, when everyone — old and young, women and men — stood against the murderers of democracy with great fury, our nation once again showed the whole world its passion for democracy and gave a lesson in unity and solidarity.

We too, as MÜSİAD, made our reaction clear immediately after the coup attempt, and while many NGOs were still busy taking the pulse, we expressed our stance against this treacherous uprising clearly and took part in the democracy vigils.

At every single point where we are present, at home and abroad, we explained the treachery our nation faced. We expressed the true face of the injustice, the conspiracy and the destructive plans as far as our breath allowed, and we worked with all our strength to create public opinion in this direction around the world.

All our branches and representatives at 89 locations at home and at 225 locations in 95 countries abroad also actively gave additional support to this work through their own efforts.

On the other hand, in order to convey the night of July 15 and what was experienced afterwards to future generations, we created content and prepared books and informative publications.

The books “July 15 in the Western Media”, which MÜSİAD USA brought to life and which sets out the perspective of the West, and “Who Can Stop Us”, published by Erdem Yayınları with MÜSİAD's support, which explains the coup attempt simply and effectively in a way our children can understand, are among these.

In addition, in the supplementary work of our MÜSİAD Çerçeve Magazine, we included detailed news reports, analyses and studies examining the coup attempt in all its aspects and setting out our stance as MÜSİAD.

Besides these, we signed a cooperation protocol with the July 15 Association in order to develop our close cooperation and to be able to bring joint projects to life together.

I consider the photograph exhibition we are opening today to be extremely important in terms of carrying this treacherous coup attempt into the future and setting out with documents that black night which we will never forget.

Esteemed Guests,

July 15 left deep and indelible marks on every one of us. I would like to express once again our gratitude to our martyrs' families and to our veterans, who will bear this mark in the most painful way throughout their lives.

I thank every one of my brothers and sisters who defended democracy and poured into the streets, the avenues and the squares with all their strength that night, and I pray for God's mercy upon our beloved martyrs.

Reminding you that our Photograph Exhibition will remain open for one month in the exhibition area of our Head Office building, I invite everyone who loves the homeland and the nation, above all our members, to visit it.

May my Lord never again make our country experience such attempts and coups. And if they are experienced, our nation will do what is necessary.

With these feelings I greet you with respect, and I thank everyone who contributed to this meaningful exhibition, above all the July 15 Association and MÜSİAD Art.

Abdurrahman KAAN

President of MÜSİAD