Dear Guests,

I am very pleasedto attend the inauguration of this exhibition which represents an important contribution to the Budapest Photo Festival.

As you know, Türkiye is not an oil-rich country. However, our country is richly endowed withnatural beauties, historical sites and cultural heritage assets. We arenaturally very happy and proud about this fact.

When we promoteour country, we also refer to her as the “largest open air museum in the world.”

This richness canbest be seen and appreciated from the sky.

Turkish photographer Alp Alper now brings this gigantic museum to Budapest through the breathtaking aerial images he has captured.

Illustrating Türkiye’s geographical and cultural diversity, this exhibition is a collectionof the photographs he painstakingly took over many years.

We thank Mr. Alper for bringing his exhibition to Hungary as well, after many other such events incountries ranging from the Americas to Japan. Of course, his work is notlimited to those on display here. We hope that this exhibition will be followedby others showcasing his other photographs taken in different continents.

The Yunus Emre Institute Budapest Turkish Cultural Center is among the major internationalpartners of the Budapest Photo Festival. In the course of its nearly five-yearexistence in Budapest, it has organized and hosted many cultural events.

These activities will continue unabated in the period ahead, as we deem it highly important for Türkiye to be known and promoted properly here in friendly Hungary. To that end,we will maintain our strong support to the bilateral cultural cooperation between the two countries and joint projects in this field.

Taking this opportunity, I wish to express my appreciation and thanks to officials of the Yunus Emre Institute Budapest Turkish Cultural Center, the Budapest Photo Festivaland the Budapest 6th District Municipality, and last but not least, Mr. Alp Alper, the artist, for the time and effort they have spent to make his eventpossible. I also thank everyone present here for their interest in the exhibition.