Diyarbakir Media Members Association [DIMED] organized a two-day tour to the historical places for members working in the Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia Regions.

Bitlis was the first stop of the cultural tour program, which was held on the “Media Members Meet with the History” program and lasted for 2 days.

First, the press workers who visited the tomb of Veysel Karani, who was in the Baykan district, then visited Grand Mosque, Five Minarets, castle, Seyir Terrace, Ihlasiye Madrasa and El Aman Han in the city center and from there, they have visited Mount Nimrut and the lake and steam flues, tomb of Abdurrahman Gazi, the Seljuk Cemetery, the Emir Bayindir Dome and other domes.

Later, members of the media who visited Norshin (Güroymak) and visited the grave of the late Naqshbandi Tariqa Shaykh Abdurrahman Takhi, visited Nurettin Mutlu, grandson of Takhi here at his madrasa.

Following the visits in Bitlis, members of the media who passed on to Muş visited Grand Mosque, Muş Castle, Mushtak Baba and Zerzemi, then passed through the historical bridge on the Murat River which is from the Seljuk period.

The press workers who visited the tomb of Ali and Esed who were martyred during the foundation of republic because they had supported Sheikh Said then passed to the Muş Journalists' Association.

Diyarbakır Media Members Association (DIMED) Chairman Mahmut Irtem said that such programs would continue, explaining about the cultural tour they had organized.

Expressing that visiting the historical places has different emotions, İrtem draws attention to the carelessness of the historical places and structures that they visit, he said that the structures are facing disappearance.

“Our purpose is to open our horizons by establishing a link between the past and the future”

Our aim is to illuminate the horizon by linking the past to the and future said Irtem and added that, “We started from Bitlis as our first stop of our tour with our program called 'Media members are meeting with the history’ as DIMED. We went to historical places in Bitlis center. Bitlis Castle, Bitlis Grand Mosque, Five Minarets, Seyir Hill, Ihlasiye Madarasa. After walking around the Medreses, we traveled to El Eman Inn, which is also one of the most important architectural monuments of Seljuk history in Bitlis-Tatvan. At the same time, we visited the crater lake of Nimrud. From there we went to the city of Ahlat, at Ahlat we first visited the tomb of the Muaz bin Jebel’s son Abdurrahman Khazi, we prayed. After that, we visited the Seljuk cemetery in the center of Ahlat. We saw there was a very deep history, a deep cult. We continued our journey from there and Mus went to see our historical museums and historical buildings. We are now at the Murat Bridge, one of the important works of the Seljuk architecture. Of course, our purpose here is to open our horizons by establishing a connection between past and future, to see the works of our past, to repeat them in this way. I hope that such visits will continue after this.”

“Those who cannot keep their past, cannot shed light on their future"

Irtem continued: “Of course, it is sad to see these historical places and to see the works of the past, to be honorable, unfortunately, such valuable works, our history is unprotected. We have seen many of them face destruction. We must absolutely possess our history. Those who cannot keep the past, cannot shed light on their future. We think that especially the authorities should protect this history and important steps should be taken to move this rich culture to the future.”

Members of the media who participated in the excursion program expressed satisfaction with their participation in such a program. (M. Hüseyin Temel - ILKHA)