The Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, Prof. Dr. Numan Kurtulmuş Inaugurated TİKA’s Project in Ivory Coast

The speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, Numan Kurtulmuş, who came to Ivory Coast to attend the 18^th Conference of the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States (PUIC), visited the National Girls’ Orphanage of Grand-Bassam and inaugurated the preschool classroom established by Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA).

The orphanage, which was established in 1972 for both female and male students, was inaugurated as a girls’ orphanage during the visit of our President, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Ivory Coast in February 2016 by First Lady, Mrs. Emine Erdoğan and the wife of the President of Ivory Coast, Dominique Claudine Quattara.

In the orphanage, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Women, Family, and Children of Ivory Coast, 133 girls between the ages of 5-21 receive education. In addition to cultural, physical and social activities, the orphanage organizes courses to develop handicraft skills.

An opening ceremony was held for the preschool classroom built by TİKA within the orphanage, which consists of a campus with a library, dining hall, health center, computer lab, playground and various workshops. The Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, Numan Kurtulmuş and his wife, Sevgi Kurtulmuş; the Minister of Women, Family, and Children of Ivory Coast, Nasseneba Touré Diané; the President of the Turkish Delegation to the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States (PUIC) and AK Party Şanlıurfa Deputy, Abdürrahim Dusak; the Member of the Turkish Delegation to the PUIC and AK Party Adana Deputy, Ahmet Zenbilci; AK Party Yalova Deputy, Ahmet Büyükgümüş; AK Party Ankara Deputy, Zeynep Yıldız; Secretary General of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, Talip Uzun, and Türkiye’s Ambassador to Abidjan, Deniz Erdoğan Barım attended the opening ceremony of the preschool classroom.

During his speech at the opening ceremony, Kurtulmuş stated that Türkiye and Ivory Coast are two friendly and brotherly countries with very close relations, especially in recent years, and continue to enhance these relations. Noting that the relations between Türkiye and Ivory Coast have begun to improve much more rapidly with the mutual visits of the presidents of the two countries, Kurtulmuş expressed that this friendship became palpable during President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Ivory Coast in 2016 when his wife Emine Erdoğan attended the opening ceremony held after the renovation of the orphanage in the National Girls’ Orphanage of Grand-Bassam.

Kurtulmuş also thanked the personnel of TİKA who contributed to the opening ceremony.

Stating that a bridge of the heart is being built between the Turkish nation and the people of Ivory Coast thanks to this opening, Kurtulmuş said, “We approach the people of Africa within the framework of the win-win principle, within the principles of cooperation, assistance, friendship and brotherhood as inherently equal individuals, and with the idea that we can build a better future together. In this context, I would like to express that today’s program is quite meaningful.”

“The conscience of societies is reflected in their approach towards orphans”

Saying “Children and young people are the future of societies. The conscience of societies is reflected in their approach towards orphans,” Kurtulmuş emphasized that taking care of the children here is a shared responsibility of humanity in this sense. He said, “We strongly believe that among these children, there will be world-class engineers, doctors, scientists, politicians, military personnel, in short, many scholars who can contribute positively to the world through receiving a good education. We also believe that there will be many community leaders among these young people.”

Stating that taking care of orphans is a sign of the conscience of societies, Kurtulmuş said, “Orphans hold particular importance in our culture and civilization. Whoever breaks an orphan’s heart destroys the world; whoever wins an orphan’s heart wins the world.”

Stating that while they are carrying out this activity for orphans in Grand-Bassam, unfortunately, in another part of the world, in the Gaza lands of Palestine, many children have become orphans due to the attacks of Israel, Kurtulmuş said,

“Under Israel’s attacks, 30,000 people were killed in five months, 75 percent of whom were women, the elderly and children. I respectfully bow before the memory of all the innocent people who have lost their lives in Gaza. In Grand-Bassam, I would like to express that taking care of all our orphaned children is a duty of humanity. I hope that we all will be able to build a world where children are not orphaned, women are not drawn apart from their families, the elderly are not killed without reason, and a world where equity, justice, mercy and conscience prevail.