Top state officials meet with children visiting Turkey for april 23 holiday

Ahead of the April 23, National Sovereignty and Children's Day, top state officials met with children coming from 59 countries throughout the world to attend Thursday's celebrations. The visiting children were separately received by President Abdullah Gul, Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara. During the meetings, the children presented gifts from their countries and got gifts in return. The April 23 holiday belongs to not only Turkish children but to children from all over the world, Gul told the young visitors. He also said establishing the holiday shows the greatness of the vision of Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. This vision considers the future of children from Turkey and across the world as well as making Turkey an independent nation, Gul said. Speaking to the children, Erdogan said, "We want to leave a world full of peace, fellowship and love to children." He added, "We believe that seeing children happy, rejoicing, laughing, playing and delighting is worth the entire world." In related news, First Lady Hayrunnisa Gul hosted a reception yesterday at the Cankaya Presidential Palace to promote a new campaign to empower the disabled through education. The campaign, called Education Enables, the biggest such campaign in Turkey, aims to better equip schools and other educational institutions so that they can be accessible to and provide opportunities for the disabled. Among the guests at the reception were Education Minister Huseyin Celik, Board of Higher Education (YOK) Chairman Yusuf Ziya Ozcan, and former Galatasaray football player Hakan Sukur.