Inlaid wood throne, mid-sixteenth century (İstanbul,Topkapi Palace Museum,2879)

Participation in the 750th Anniversary of the Foundation of West Berlin:
   On that occasion, which was sponsored by the senate of West Berlin, Turkey’s contribution consisted of performances given by the Whirling Dervishes, State Folk-Dance Group, a Turkish music concert by Yıldırım Gürses and his band and piano recital by Gülsin Onay. It also included a sales exhibiton on Turkish handcrafts, exhibitions by Turkish artists living in Germany along with two other exhibitionson handicrafts and Turkish Dresses that werw initiated by the Turkish Institute of Female Further Education. The majority of these performances was shown on German television and reported in newspapers and magazines.
   Similar events were organized in Cairo on the occasion of the 8th International Congress of Turkish Arts.
   Australia, in turn, witnessed performances of Turkish classical music, Turkish folk dance, an applied marble show and a slide show Mimar Sinan’s works of architecture.

Jeweled rock-crystal and gold  canteen,second halfsixteenth century  (İstanbul, Topkapi Sarayı Museum 484) 

   1988 being the 400th anniversary  of  Mimar Sinan’s death, various  Commemorative activities are being  organized throughout the world. A  two volume book, titled, “The  Albume of Mimar Sinan” was  published on the occasion of the  400th Commemorative year and is  now being distributed. 

   A large number of projects are  under way to collect the necessary  materials for exhibitions, films, conferences and publications in order to order provide the world public with adequate information on the impressively rich culture that Turkey inherited from its history. Such activities not only serve the purpose of displaying the works created in the golden age of the Ottoman Empire, but are at the same time aimedr at giving an idea of Turkish history, Turkish arts with all its branches like music, literature, gilding, miniature painting and calligraphy and Turkish customs and traditions, which together give Turkish culture its specific shape.