Garanti BBVA employees mark 100th anniversary of the Republic of Türkiye with a photographic exhibit
Garanti BBVA employees have commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Türkiye with an exhibit titled ‘One Hundred Years Ago, One Hundred Years Later: Mustafa Kemal Pasha's Path to the Republic in Photographs.’
Hosted in Istanbul at the Beyoğlu branch of Salt, the arts and culture institute created and funded by Garanti BBVA, it showcases bank employees’ own photographs of key historical sites that witnessed the rise of the modern Turkish state. The exhibit offers a unique experience to younger generations: on one side, for instance, you see a recent picture of a road; next to it, you find an image of the same road, yet as it was a hundred years before—when it was the path followed by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his comrades-in-arms, in the midst of their endeavor to establish the Republic.
Garanti BBVA's volunteer employees decided to follow in their footsteps. First, emulating Atatürk’s departure from the capital on the Bandirma ferry, they sailed a yacht from Istanbul to Samsun, and from there ventured on a trek that took them through 22 cities, photographing each milestone as they followed Atatürk in his journey of national liberation of a hundred years ago. The resulting exhibition catalog features both archival imagery and contemporary photographs.
Garanti BBVA CEO Recep Baştuğ said, "We are proud to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Türkiye. We are aware that institutions like ours are under a duty to protect those founding values and continue them into the future. Garanti BBVA employees share this view, and it is they who have brought to life this historically resonant and inspirational event.”