POPULAR CELEBRATIONS

The History Foundation regards popular celebrations as an important means of drawing the public attention to its activities. The first important step in that field was taken in July 1993, with the organization of the "Istanbul History and Sea Festival" in collaboration with over 30 institutions. The festival, which lasted two weeks, rounded off a program of some 40 activities with a regatta of hundreds of boats on the Bosphorus.

The History Foundation also played a unique role in imparting a message of peace and popular participation to the celebrations held on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Turkish Republic in 1998.

Under the general heading of the "75th Anniversary of the Turkish Republic as a Modernization Project," whose main sponsors were the Promotion Fund of the Prime Ministry and the Istanbul Stock Exchange, the Foundation designed the Republic Day Parades in Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir; and organised the exhibitions, "Three Generations of the Republic" and the "Family Albums of the Republic"; the Local History Competition sponsored by the National Lottery Administration.

The Foundation also organized, jointly with the Turkish Academy of Sciences and the Turkish Social Sciences Association, an international congress, the "History of the Turkish Republic: A Reassessment"; commissioned Balance Sheet '98, a series of 13 books sponsored by Is Bank; organized jointly with TÜRSAK the First International Festival of History and Film; and conducted the oral history and documentary film project, resulting in eleven short documetary films titled "Reminiscences of the Republic."