First Lady Emine Erdogan opens the Book and Papers exhibition

First Lady Emine Erdoan, wife of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inaugurated the “Books and Papers Fair” organized by the Asetan Foundation.

The Foundation, which began restoration work in 2016, was established to read and learn the story of the book and paper and the Center for Preservation and Restoration.

This is in order to share the strength and richness of the past and to raise awareness among children, youth and people.

The foundation is located in the Kazlıçeşme building of the Zeytinburnu municipality and the Paper Gallery.

First Lady Erdoan hoped that her ribbon-cutting exhibition would be useful

After the opening, Mrs. Erdoan visited the exhibition, which includes many works from 150-year-old books to paper made from raw materials such as linen, berries and silk.

She received information about the products from Hassiba Tauran, Founder and Chairman, Asitane.

Mrs. Erdogan also examined 40 books in the exhibition, which were extracted from the wall of a demolished house in Afshin district in Kahramanmaras, bearing the antiquities of the ancient period.

Erdogan also visited the “Manual Paper Workshop”, the first training workshop on paper in Turkey within the Foundation’s Conservation and Restoration Center.

She received information about the handcrafted papers in the workshop from Ibrahim Sami Ozen, founder of Duzce Paper Workshop.

Ms Erdogan was accompanied by Zeytinburnu Mayor Umar Ersoy on her visit.

In a statement after the visit of First Lady Erdogan, Ibrahim Sami Uzen explained that they worked on the production of paper, paints, brushes and other materials used in the traditional Turkish decorative arts in the workshop.

Ozen states that the paper went through a “finishing” process for at least two years after its manufacture, and then became usable by artists.