Independence poet Mehmet Akif Ersoy was commemorated with an event held in the city of Ipek in the west of Kosovo, his family home..

Türkiye's Ambassador to Pristina Sabri Tunç Angılı, Prizren Consul General Celal Doğan, TMV Board Member Ahmet Türkben, Kosovo Representative Mehmet Nedim Aslan, Kosovo Yunus Emre Institute (YEI) Coordinator Ramazan Yılmaz and Haxhi Zeka University Vice Rector Alma Shehu as well as many guests attended the "Understanding and Commemoration of Mehmet Akif Ersoy" program organized by the Turkish Maarif Foundation (TMV) at the Hall of the Faculty of Law of İpek Haxhi Zekâ University.

In his speech here, Türkiye's Ambassador to Pristina Angılı said that organizing this event in the city where Tahir Efendi, Mehmet Akif Ersoy's father, was born, was extremely meaningful and valuable.

“Anatolia and the Balkans are tightly connected to each other”

Stating that it is not a coincidence that Kosovo is the homeland of Mehmet Akif Ersoy, the poet of the National Anthem, which can be read as the soul of the Republic of Türkiye, "It is not a coincidence because Kosovo and Turkey, or if you expand it more, Anatolia and the Balkans, have been closely connected to each other for centuries. There have been two geographies feeding off each other like different branches of a single cultural tree." Angılı said.

Pointing out also that there are important figures who are a bridge between the Balkan geography and Türkiye and said, "Our 1894 literary figures who are of Balkan origin or have traveled to the Balkans, such as Yahya Kemal and Mehmet Akif, who made this friendship even stronger in the field of literature, especially with their poems, I remember our poet with the same respect." TMV Board Member Türkben said.

Mehmet Akif Ersoy is one of the most inspiring names in both Türkiye and Kosovo

Haxhi Zeka University Vice Rector Shehu also emphasized that Mehmet Akif Ersoy is one of the most inspiring and brightest names not only in Türkiye but also in the history of Kosovo.

TMV Kosovo Representative Aslan stated that they organized the event in order to understand and commemorate a great personality who wrote the heroic epic of a nation that those who defend chaos, war, instability and injustice want to destroy.

After the opening speeches, the program continued with a cinema show about Mehmet Akif Ersoy's life and Kosovo Turkish poets Zeynel Beksaç, İskender Muzbeg and Yunus Şimşek reading Ersoy's poems.

Program ended with the organization of a panel in which Professor Cihan Özdemir, Professor İbrahim Gültekin and Shasivar Kabashi were speakers.

On the other hand, after the completion of the program, the guests also visited Ersoy's father's house, Suşitsa (Susica) village of Istog Municipality.

Mehmet Akif Ersoy, the author of the National Anthem, the symbol of the Turkish nation's struggle for independence, member of parliament, poet and thinker, was born in Fatih on December 20th, 1873, as the son of a family that migrated to Istanbul from Sushitsa, village of Kosovo.-