23rd Aug,2008/ Sombola,2,1387
Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure for me to be here in Kabul today to recognise the 75th memorial anniversary of Mahmud Tarzi meetings under the shinning celebration of independency. With this occassion I extend our deep respect and sukran to King Aman Ullah who brought independence to our country in 1919.
We are particularly honoured by the presence of the President/ministers whose leadership and ideas have contributed so much to improve the quality of life and economic well-being of the citizens of Afghanistan. I again deliver our deep appreciation to the President who released a jerib of land to build MTCF HQ and research center of Afghanistan, in Kabul. In this week we are happy to put a cornerstone on this land to start the construction soon.
I would also like to express special thanks to my brother the Foreign Minister, H.E. dr Spanta, in organizing this important event and facilitating the presence of so many people from different parts of the world. Many of our international guests have prominent and responsible positions at home and their presence here honours us.
Today we gathered here to respect a man who brought light to the Afghan nation about 80-85 years ago. But he represents much more. His efforts were limitless. He was the father of journalism, a respected diplomat, the first foreign minister and ambassador. Besides these; He had a strong pen, wrote prose and poetry for his people and for his country, translated many books from other languages to bring the good winds to his people.
A man that helped us move towards the future !!!
He was Sardar Mahmud Tarzi.
I believe most of the speakers will give more details about him during this seminar with their valuable interpretations.
Today is a very important day in Afghan history. After many years, this is the first official celebration ceremony for Mahmud Tarzi and for his memory. The schedule of this memorial period will last until the 23rd November 2008 in several foreign countries and the closing ceremony will be held in Istanbul in front of his tomb with a serial of conferences. There will be a joint program of Istanbul Literature Faculty together with Kabul Literature Faculty including international scholars. MTCF is organising a contest “ Mahmud Tarzi’s life and struggles” between the two faculty students. With these activities our grandchildren will learn more about him and his struggles, what good he had done for his country. Mahmut Tarzi was a man who felt himself responsible to bring civilization, modern state management philosophy and more healthy living style to his people. All of which collectively important to create a humane and socially-supportive built environment to raise the quality of life.
It is therefore most appropriate that this event is taking place in Afghanistan, a country rich in cultural heritage and pluralistic traditions.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is now 3 years since the Mahmud Tarzi Cultural Foundation established in Afghanistan. From the 1st day on we were supported by every office in the state organization as well as by the civilian Afghan institutions and people of Afghanistan.
MTCF is an pure Afghan origin foundation,its headquarter is in Kabul.
Founders of MTCF are 3rd generation of Mahmud Tarzi family members. Please allow me to give you a short information about his family. He had ten children from his respected wife Asma Resmiye, 5 sons and 5 daughters. Unfortunately all deceased except her daughter, princess Amina Seraj in her age 93 and happly living in Istanbul with her family.
Another gentleman and former Education minister and ambassador H.E. Hamid Ullah Enayat-Seraj who is my cousin, is honorable chairman of our foundation. We received valuable advises from him. I personally called and invited him for this meeting but he was unable to travel these days and sent his very warm salams and ehterams to each one of you and appreciation to the organization committee.
When we decided to launch the foundation all grandchildren of Mahmud Tarzi approved and signed the establishment agenda. Then we informed this development and establishment of the foundation to all Tarzis and received also their warm support . We then applied our documents to Afghan government to start the establishment process. At this stage it is my duty to express our ehteram and gratitude to H.E. Raheen, former minister of Culture, for his very warm assistance with his support. Here I kindly also express our deepest appreciation to H.E. Amin Farhang who gave us our certificate immediately without any problem. He is a true friend of mine and I always appreciated his positive efforts for our foundation.
Afghanistan is an important country in mid Asia and I strongly believe, it is the answer why we have so many guests living with us since years in our land. In Islam, the Holy Koran says that, “man is God’s noblest creation” to whom He has entrusted the stewardship of all that is on earth. Each generation must leave to its successor an enhanced and sustainable social and physical environment. One of our objective is not to loose identities and their inspiration . We must take care not to absorbe imported forms but to put our owns to match with others. This is very important point to be recognized by all people. I am sure every responsible citizen in every part of the world will share this aspiration. So we must trust ourselves, we must work together, we must live together without any separation. This is our country and there is one country and one nation for Afghan people. If we do this we become strong and do good things for ourselves and for our country..
I am therefore convinced that supporting diversity and cultures under threat is a worthwhile and fruitful venture.
In these two days we shall observe and share some valuable speaches from respected researchers for Mahmud Tarzi and his works. Before entering this section, I want to add that we live in 21st century and is important to discuss influences of Mahmud Tarzi’s ideas to the present world and people. At the end of this session we shall see that all his ideas are still fresh and useful for us.
World is a much better place because it is pluralist and multi-cultural. And it is vital that we can make our country more stable after the lessons we have learned from the world. That means we need to build an all encompassing profile of people and habitat, not only in the Islamic world, but in countries where Muslims live and interact with other communities, both urban and rural.
There is another page of story in Afghanistan the “generation that lost its childhood” vowing to help those, forced by war and poverty into militias,early marriage or onto the streets. More then half the population of Afghanistan is under the age of 19 and they want to live in stability and peace. They have lost much-loved ones, homes, playmates...they are the generation that lost its childhood !!!
Now we must work for them, to build a country for them.
MTCF has various goals and aims. We run scholarship programmes, we receive funds to renovate our school MTHS, to make one of the leading school in midasia. We work on a big project with international consultants to build a compound for the foundation which includes streetchildren rehabilition center and women care center , a library and a museum. We work on a financial project which includes a cardiovascular hospital, hotel and congress hall. We shall receive our necessary budgets from these facilities. And with all these we bring hope and courage to our young generation to live in better conditions insallah! But while we can be pleased with this progress, there is much more to be done. We are not an ordinary /as they call NGO/ or instutition looking for help a one time business or work only for itself. We are an Afghan foundation, managed by international high level business professionals who are Afghan. Our projects will bring additional value to whole country for local needs. Projects will bring a certain prestige to our country and of course physical benefits.
The Muslim world is multi-cultural, diverse in geography, terrain and climate and it exhibits extremes of wealth and poverty. This diversity forces us to be sensitive not only to local needs, but to local capacity and resources available to meet those needs.
I hope that the lessons learned in the process we have established, would be applicable to the many others in similar circumstances.
Perhaps these lessons will one day be seen as an important contribution by the Muslim world: A contribution to the broader cause of maintaining and enhancing a multi-cultural, pluralist world and a responsive, appropriate human habitat.
And although many fine examples of rural projects have been represented in the past cycles, still they are not enough. We have much yet to strive for. But I believe the process we are planning, to launch a hospital and a congress hall will become a self-sustaining and unstoppable force for change in human habitat not only in Afghanistan, but in most of the developing world as well as in midasia. Therefore we always need government’s very close assistance to open our path to run towards the future. In fact some says it is not a good time to deliver these projects,money,manpower...into the country but I say it is the time to invest and start work for the country. Let me tell you a word “if you build and or renew the bus stations with new shape in a city,people will adopt themselves quickly when they start getting the benefit.”
Dear friends,ladies and gentlemen
Mahmud Tarzi family members and MTCF strongly accept the aboves, which I mentioned.
We carry his blood and we know him very well, what he said and meant and did. He is in our soul, deep inside. We are aware what kind of responsibility we have for our country, for the whole Tarzi family and specially for him, for his name.
Therefore we need your sincere approach, participation and presence in the foundation to share these responsibilities . This is our foundation to work for the good of the people of Afghanistan. Anybody who brings offer for the good of MTCF is welcomed by the foundation. We are professionals and easy people to negotiate but very sensitive to decide.
“ a pesimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty”
Let us hold hands together and march to the shining seraj...to the future of Afghanistan
Thank you!
speech of mr. Omer TARZI, president of Mahmud Tarzi Cultural Foundation in International Seminar of 75th Memorial Aniversary of Mahmud Tarzi in Kabul,on 23rd August 2008/ Sombola 2, 1387