Dr. Filiz Çağman, who started her career as the Director of Topkapı Palace Museum in 1997, is an intellectual who has gained the appreciation of art circles until 2005. She had worked at the Topkapı Palace Manuscript Library between 1964-1997 as an expert in manuscript, miniature and calligraphy. Çağman’s life which intertwined with art and history is published as a book by the Traditional Arts Association.
The introductory meeting of the book was held on February 8th of 2019 at Topkapı Palace. Ahmet Akcan, Chairman of the Traditional Arts Association, said the following about the preparation process of the book:
“The Traditional Arts Association, which has adopted the mission of protecting the historical and cultural values of our country, continues to bring qualified works in this field to the readers and prepared this book for reminding Filiz Çağman who is an exemplary personality in every aspect to her contemporaries and introduce her value to new generations. Every book we have prepared has a story. We are proud to be together for the promotion of this book; the book that emerged as a result of long, hard and persistent studies.
Both biographical and oral history studies about the important names of our culture and art world convey us invaluable experiences by tracing the past. Thanks to these valuable life stories, we can vividly determine what kind of development process our cultural and artistic values have gone through from past to present. Thus, we can have an idea of how art and culture will take shape from now on. Here, we want to do our share, internalize these values, explain them with an understanding that is appropriate for today and pass them on to future generations.”
Prof. Dr. İlber Ortaylı: “Filiz Çağman was an overseer”
Speaking after Ahmet Akcan, Prof. Dr. İlber Ortaylı said, “Today, there is no doubt that we came together with the happiness of seeing a colleague and a teacher who left a name in the Topkapı Palace Museum on her birthday. This is an important event. I have known Filiz Çağman from his youth, from her years as a librarian,” he started his speech with these words.
He said, he has a lot of complains about librarians in Turkey and that idea is not hidden from the public, and he expressed his reason for thinking like that as follows;
“A librarian is the one who deals with just his/her business. In addition to the curators of Harvard, the directors of the Yale Library, the Volga-length town librarians; in our society such example librarians are F. Müjgan Cunbur, the unforgettable director of the Turkish Historical Society Library, and Mrs. Çağman. This is an important position. Topkapı Palace Library is a world brand. In this library, there are nearly 20 thousand books in Arabic, Persian, Chagatay dialect, which are nowhere to be found, ancient Greek and Georgian. Topkapı is a name in this sense.
People in Turkey (even the most enlightened of) ninety-nine percent of them, come to libraries for studying or for flirting. Apart from this, Turkish libraries do not improve because people do not use dictionaries and or examine encyclopedias (these are the work of doctorates after a certain age).
During Istemihan Talay’s ministry, we had proposed Mrs. Çağman as the Director of Topkapı Palace Museum, but Mrs. Çağman did not accept this offer. Later, we convinced her that she took this duty. Mrs. Çağman became a person who acted in accordance with Topkapı's heritage and tradition. This is a very important thing. She was an overseer. "
After the opening speeches, Dr. Filiz Çağman commemorated the people who contributed to the preparation of the book and those who participated in the program and thanked them. A surprise birthday cake was brought to Mrs. Çağman, who had very exciting and emotional moments, on the occasion of her birthday.
The program ended with the presentation of Coşkun Yılmaz, the Istanbul Provincial Director of Culture and Tourism Director, to Filiz Çağman with the Traditional Arts Association Silver Tulip Award.
