İDV Primary School Students Publish Seyahatname
İDV Bilkent Primary School students celebrate Evliya Çelebi's 400th birthday with the publication of their very own "Seyahatname."
Seventy-two students of İDV Bilkent Primary School put together their travel notes and published them under the title Torun Çelebiler Seyahatnamesi: Evliya Çelebi'nin 400 Yıl Ardından (Grandchildren Çelebis' Travels/"Seyahatname": 400 years after Evliya Çelebi). The book contains information about countries, islands, and cities ranging from Puerto Rico to Shanghai, Paris to Toronto, Sinop to Harran, Haiti to the Netherlands, Bozcaada to Ağrı, and many more.
Prof. Talât Halman, dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Letters, contributed to the work with a preface, in which he wrote: "This extensive anthology comprising the travel notes of İDV Bilkent Elementary School students, keeps alive and continues the spirit, wit, intelligence, powers of observation, and commentary of the genius 17th-century traveler and writer Evliya Çelebi. Every entry is like an echo of and from Evliya Çelebi."
2011 is the 400th anniversary of the birth of the famous Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi (1611-1682). Çelebi is known to have travelled the lands of the Ottoman Empire and neighboring territories for over forty years, collecting a vast amount of travel notes, which he then prepared for publication in ten volumes.
The book was prepared for publication with the aids of Necati Ekmekçioğlu (head of the Parents' Council), Ahu Ünsal (teacher), and Murat Özsoy (member of Parents' Council).
All profits from the sale of the book will be donated UNICEF.