A Message from the President
“Health is a crown on the heads of those whose bodies are intact, and only the eyes of the sick see it.” Prophet Muhammad explained the importance of health in this way.
“It is difficult to appreciate the value of two things; one is the health, and the other is youth.”
Hz. Ali talked about the difficulty of taking back things after losing them.
“There isn’t another respected object among people like state, the state isn’t worth as much as a healthy breath in this world” Suleiman the Magnificent emphasized the importance of health centuries ago with these words.
The only thing that has not changed over the centuries is health, being healthy, and staying healthy. We understand that being happy, feeling happiness, dreaming, making some plans, and more can be achieved if one is healthy. When our health is good, we worry about many things and can be sad, but when there is a health-related problem, then all our troubles and worries disappear in our eyes.
Diseases are perhaps one of the greatest tests of man. Diseases such as the plague, cholera, and smallpox have afflicted our world for centuries and cost the lives of hundreds of millions of people. The first of these was the “plague epidemic” that spread in Asia and Europe in the 14th century, then smallpox that spread to America, along with cholera, and the last known major epidemic, the “Spanish flu” in the early 20th century.
I would like to specifically mention the Spanish flu as those years coincided with the beginning of the First World War and our War of Independence. During this epidemic, which lasted most heavily around 1917-1919, heroic Turkish armies were fighting on many fronts from Asia to Europe, from Africa to the Arabian Peninsula. In those days, it was a struggle that was against both an invisible enemy of microbes and visible invading imperialist forces!
This pandemic once again allows us to understand what great people our ancestors were. Our great Leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk also caught this disease in those difficult days just as he was taking the first steps to start our War of Independence, and after quick treatment, he recovered and started the great liberation march in Anatolia on May 19, 1919, without rest.
Although today science and technology have progressed so much, exactly 100 years after both the Spanish flu and the 1st World War took place in Europe, unfortunately since the beginning of 2020, we have been experiencing the Covid-19 epidemic. Our world is going through incredible days; although medical science is so advanced, we are faced with an overwhelming virus. We have seen that this epidemic that started in China spreads rapidly, and there is almost no place where it has not reached. It is conceivable that the biggest factor here is globalization.
Turkey is one of the countries most affected by this epidemic, and every day we see new cases around us in our close acquaintances. We understand that it is necessary to follow the strict precautions explained by our doctors and that this is not a joke. In the meantime, it is a fact that life continues on due to the economic needs; in this context, measures have been taken all over the world, in order for production to continue.
In such an environment, we, at Ant Yapı, take every precaution despite all these difficulties and have continued to produce without slowing down in Russia, England, and America as well as in Turkey. Fortunately, according to the latest news, vaccination studies have reached the final stage, and we are a little relieved. We hope that this epidemic will come to an end with the introduction of vaccines, and we believe that this virus, which is a common problem of man, will be beaten as soon as possible. We congratulate all the people who are working hard in this area, especially the healthcare professionals.
These days, as we are entering a new year, we wish the sick to be healed and wish all humanity a healthy, happy, and peaceful 2021, in which natural disasters and epidemics will come to an end.
Mehmet Okay
Board Member