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8 May 1998
Private Cihangir College, İkitelli / İstanbul
Nazire Dedeman
Founder President of Umut Foundation
Speech Text
Dear participants of Private Cihangir Schools,
First of all I would like to thank each and every one of you for selecting me as the Mother of the year and presenting me this award. I see this award as a prize for what we have managed to achieve as the Umut Foundation to and I am very happy and proud. I am accepting the Mother of the year award on behalf on millions of Turkish Mothers of the millennium; on behalf of all the mothers in Turkey who want peace.
Umut Foundation was established 5 years ago in order to achieve the supremacy of law in our country and region, help our youth gain a personality and skills to become leaders following the footsteps of Atatürk, help to raise them as individuals who help the development of our country and bring value to humankind, by setting off with Great Leader Atatürks Peace at home peace in the world motto, having them prefer peaceful ways in dispute resolution, improving their skills in maintaining and enhancing peace.
We established Umut Foundation to keep alive the memories of the late four children of Dedeman and Önal families; Berna, Umut, Onur and Önder and to share the good, positiveness and pacifism they represent for us with all young people.
As well as being the names of the grandchildren, children, sisters and brothers of the family these names also symbolize the name and the aim of the Foundation.
Berna means full of youth and life in Farsi. Umut (Hope) means to protect and let live all good, too long for the better, optimism for the future, dream and expectation; i.e. it is life itself. Onur (Honour) is the dignity measure of peace; it is the guide, the compass of development not departing from fairness and freedom. Human honor is equivalent to adopting the state governed by the rule of law, protecting and developing law. Önder (Leader) is the one who gives hope and gathers the masses around him and puts them in action. Önder is the one who can create a mutual aim. Önder is the person who symbolizes hope and honor.
At the same time, Berna, Umut, Onur and Önder are not just our children. Therefore our Foundation would like the tendency towards personal armament, which is becoming more and more common, to stop now and wants the young people and the whole society to resolve their issues by reconciliation. In brief, our Foundation would like to call upon the young people for the following: Let all of you be a messenger of peace
With these feelings, I would like to thank you once again for deeming me worthy of the mother of the year award and let you know once more how proud and happy I am because of it.
I too would like to celebrate the Mothers Day of all mothers and wish all our children a nice future and wish for them to become mothers and fathers.
With hope for tomorrow
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