President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday lauded the role of foundations in Türkiye’s culture of charity and pledged to protect the historical and spiritual values inherited from its ancestors.
Speaking during the Foundations Week Celebration Program at the Beştepe Nation’s Congress and Culture Center in Ankara, Erdoğan said charitable foundations have played a central role in shaping Turkish and Islamic civilization throughout history.
"We will continue to protect the values that made our nation what it is, values that reflect the spirit and legacy of our glorious past bearing the marks and seal of our ancestors,” Erdoğan said.
The event, organized under the theme "Foundation Civilization in Architecture and Elegance,” brought together foundation representatives, officials and civil society members at the Presidential Complex.
Erdoğan noted the concepts of architecture, elegance, foundations and civilization complemented and enriched one another, describing Türkiye’s historical foundation culture as unique in the world.
"The historical, cultural and identity heritage we inherited combined architecture with elegance, crowned elegance with foundation services and transformed the foundation tradition into a civilization feast unparalleled in the world,” he stressed.
Foundations, known as "vakıf” in Turkish and Islamic tradition, historically funded a wide range of public services across the Ottoman Empire, including schools, hospitals, mosques, libraries and social welfare programs.
Erdoğan said the tradition embraced all aspects of social life and extended beyond human needs to include environmental and animal protection.
"In the Ottoman era, a person would be born in a foundation-funded house, grow up in a foundation-supported cradle, study using foundation books and even be buried in a foundation cemetery,” he said.
He also referred to historical examples ranging from providing ink to students and restoring shrines to protecting migratory storks and caring for abandoned patients.
The Turkish leader thanked charitable organizations and volunteers dedicating their time and resources to humanitarian work without expecting anything in return.
The president also criticized unnamed groups he accused of targeting foundations and associations while remaining silent about corruption allegations elsewhere.
"Those whose only political direction is money, rent and personal interests target our foundations and associations at every opportunity,” he said.
He added that foundations operating in areas such as youth education, humanitarian aid and social solidarity continue to serve as "a source of pride” for the Turkish nation.
Foundations Week is marked annually in Türkiye with events highlighting the country’s charitable and cultural heritage rooted in Ottoman and Islamic traditions.