President Erdoğan speaks at the 11th Necip Fazıl Awards Ceremony: 'It was our destiny to open Hagia Sophia'

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made significant remarks at the 11th Necip Fazıl Awards Ceremony.

Highlights from President Erdoğan's speech are as follows:

"I once again pray for God's mercy upon the master Necip Fazıl, a poet, thinker, and man of action and cause. Master Necip Fazıl was one of the most prominent names of our cause. He stood tall as a fearless commander against those who tried to erase Islam from these lands. He was imprisoned, yet he never refrained from defending the truth and justice.

HE GUIDED THE BRAVE CHILDREN OF ANATOLIA

When the judge said, 'We are tired, when will we get rid of you,' the master's response was meaningful. He said, 'As long as you are the innkeeper and I am the traveler on this path, you will not be able to get rid of me.' With his insightful and resolute stance, he guided the brave children of Anatolia. May the Almighty be pleased with him.

BEING BORN IN THESE LANDS IS A GIFT FROM GOD TO US

I would like to reiterate a point I express at every opportunity today. These lands have been kneaded for centuries in that vast vessel of knowledge, wisdom, and virtue. Being born in these lands is a gift from God to us. Only those who are fortunate can grasp this truth. You are the representatives of a deep evolution and a deep-rooted accumulation. I thank each of you from the bottom of my heart for carrying this trust properly with your works of thought and art and your exemplary stance.

I CONGRATULATE OUR INTELLECTUAL LABORERS

I especially congratulate the Star newspaper and our Ministry of Culture for organizing this award ceremony by keeping the master's memory alive. I congratulate in advance the writers, poets, and intellectual laborers whose awards we will present shortly."

POETS OPEN PATHS AND BECOME COMPANIONS

Poets who have not severed their ties with the roots of their civilization and who have not broken their emotional bond with the nation from which they emerged are the exuberant voices of the people and the truth that transcend time. They establish bonds with words between people who do not know each other by name, form, or spirit; they open paths and become companions. With their verses, they nourish national consciousness and serve the revival of national identity. The master is exactly such a poet."

IT WAS OUR DESTINY TO OPEN HAGIA SOPHIA

The master was speaking at Sultanahmet Square, at the well-known Water Tower; and this humble servant was presenting him that day. He pointed to Hagia Sophia with his hand and said, 'One day it will open, one day it will open.' Thank God, the master was a person with such a broad horizon, and while he was shouting it out there, it was my destiny to present him and it was this humble servant's destiny to open it. The master's poems that transcend time describe us. They describe our cause and our ideals. They reveal our inner essence. Necip Fazıl was able to be a man of action who led with his poems and ideas. Because the master was able to hold a mirror to the heart of the nation with his poems that broke down the dams.

THE TORCH HE LIT WILL CONTINUE TO GUIDE US

The master's greatest struggle was against those who targeted the future of this nation and attempted social engineering. The ideal youth of the master is a youth that is conscious that 'time and space are entrusted to me.' That is the expression. It is a youth that sees true freedom in serving the Truth. The master voiced the longings of our nation, which were looked down upon and shown as worthless. He turned these longings into a banner of words and ideas. With his poems, he brought out the embers in the heart of our nation and turned them into signal flares. The torch he lit will continue to guide us.

DEEMED WORTHY OF THE TITLE 'SULTAN OF POETS'

I pray that the Almighty keeps us and every member of our nation, especially our youth, steadfast on this path. Our world of emotion and thought is our most distinct characteristic that sometimes unites us with the society we live in and sometimes differentiates us. Those who knew the master closely mention 3 important features that distinguished him from everyone else. The first of these is that he was able to maintain a vigorous body and mind despite the turbulent life he lived, the polemics he entered, the political pressures he was subjected to, the prison sentences, and his diabetes. His personality, which did not bend despite everything, has been remembered with appreciation and admiration. His second characteristic is his unparalleled artistry. Just as he left his mark on every field of literature, he also determined the agenda of the period he lived in with the works he wrote on political and historical subjects. The master was deemed worthy of the title 'Sultan of Poets.' The master was a man of the beyond and of intuition.

YOU CAN FEEL THAT HE CONTEMPLATED DEEPLY IN ALL HIS WORKS

The third feature is his desire to be privy to the essence of everything in his own words. In a conversation, he prayed with the words of our Prophet, 'O Lord, show me the reality of things as they are.' 'I understood the work, art is to seek God. This is the skill. The rest is just child's play.' You can feel that he contemplated deeply on every subject in all his works. I find the Necip Fazıl Awards, which have been held since 2014 to keep the legacy of such a man of ideas alive, very valuable in terms of transferring our national values to young generations."