Flowers and children - a common wealth of nations Arts and handicrafts represent and promote a nation's culture. Already the Ottoman Turks loved to say it with flowers. Whether it was on tiles or vases, on carpets or kilims, as embroideries or stamped on coins, in verses or songs, in the deliberately arranged garden of the Sultan's Palace or in the simple flowerpot of an Anatolian house - the flower has been part of the Turks' life since centuries. The best-known examples are certainly the splendid clothing and tiles from the Ottoman period. But also the folk people used and use flowers as a tool for talking without words. Among the wide choice of wild and cultivated flowers the rose seems to be the number one when it comes to frequency and appearance. The Turkish word "gül" is of Persian origin and there is a theory that both words, rose and gül, derive from the same Indo-European root word. In Ottoman poetry the rose denotes the beloved and the village women of Anatolia use still today the rose lace for the bridal veil. Even if the carnation is very frequently used as embroidery or decorative ornaments on tiles and vases, this flower is interestingly absently in poetry. The explication is probably that the Turkish word "karanfil" can be used also describing a wound. And there is one more flower sharing the love of the east and the west equally. It came in 1594 from Turkey to the Netherlands and immediately won the European hearts. It is the tulip, which was found originally in Asia Minor and has become not only a favourite in Turkey's decorative gardens but also is also a mainstay in the embroidery of clothing and on tiles or vases. In the Turkish language this delicate flower is called "lale", but the word "tulip" also originates from a Turkish word. It seems to have found its way by a simple matter of misunderstanding when a Turkish interpreter compared the flower to a "tülbent", a "turban" and thus it made its way as "tulp" to the Netherlands. Oya - a kind of edging crochet of coloured threads in the shape of flowers or leafs -- is one of the most typical regional handicrafts. Like this the Anatolian girls and women reflect their emotions in colourful oya embroidery on their traditional scarves or also in natural motives of the hand-woven regional carpets of Döşemealtı. Flowers are in Turkey not only wide spread in arts and handicrafts. Turkey is also worldwide one of the few countries where an extremely rich number of endemic plants can be found. According to present state of investigations about 30% of the cultivated plants still playing an important role for the food market today are originally from Anatolia. From 9,160 botanical species growing in Turkey about 3,300 are endemic. 630 of these 3,300 plants grow only at the Mediterranean Sea and 500 of those only grow in the province of Antalya. Since decades the Turkish children celebrate every year on the 23rd of April the "Sovereignty and Children's Day" as a national holiday. Schools participate in weeklong preparations marked by performances in all fields in large stadiums watched by the entire nation. Among the activities on this day, the children send their representatives to replace state officials in their offices. The President, the Prime Minister, the Cabinet Ministers, and provincial governors - all turn over their positions to children's representatives. These children, in turn, sign executive orders relating to educational and environmental policies. On this day, the children also replace the parliamentarians in the Grand National Assembly and hold a special session to discuss matters concerning children's issues. Over the last decades, the Turkish officials have been working hard to internationalize this important day. Their efforts resulted in large number of world states' sending groups of children to Turkey to participate in the above stated festivities. During their stay in Turkey, the foreign children are housed in Turkish homes and find an important opportunity to interact with the Turkish kids and learn about each other's countries and cultures. The foreign children groups also participate in the special session of the Grand National Assembly. This results in a truly international Assembly where children pledge their commitment to international peace and brotherhood.

• published: 13 May 2012
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