Doğan’s name will live in the name of a culture center which will be built in Kayseri jointly by IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation and Kocasinan Municipality. The culture center will also have a dormitory for orphans and provide accommodation to 100 orphan children or youths.

A protocol has been signed between IHH and Kocasinan Municipality about the project and the necessary work has been launched.

As part of the protocol, a social facility area which has a size of 3,236 square-meters in Uğurevler neighborhood has been allocated to the use of IHH to serve as a humanitarian aid facility for a period of 25 years.

IHH Secretary-General YaşarKutluay and KocasinanMayorBekirYıldızmade some statements about the project at the signature ceremony. IHH representative in Kayseri ŞabanSözduyar and main sponsor of the project FuatTürk were also among the participants of the ceremony.

For his part, Kutluay said he is very happy about the project, adding: “IHH, which makes intense efforts to extend a helping hand to the orphans in need in Kayseri and many parts of the world, has decided to open an orphanage in Kayseri in order to make its work permanent and to provide more effective and better services to orphans. In this regard, we presented the “culture center” project to Kocasinan Municipality and the municipality agreed to carry out this project jointly with us. We offer our thanks to Mayor BekirYıldız, members of the municipal council and other municipal officials for their support. We are very happy to cooperate with Kocasinan Municipality for a project that will offer services to orphans and children of refugee families in Kayseri.”

Kutluay also said Furkan Doğan, who is buried in his hometown of Kayseri, influenced many people with his self-sacrifice and courage.

“This project is a first in this sense,” he added, offering his thanks again to Yıldız, members of the municipal council and Türk.

Mayor Yıldız, who also delivered a speech at the ceremony, said: “We are establishing a facility here for the memory of Furkan Doğan, a resident of Kayseri, and all the oppressed people across the world. We hope that this facility will always remind people and next generations of the [Mavi Marmara] incident. This mission of the project is more important than everything else. We allocated a land for the facility. The project will be carried out and the facility will be run by IHH. We are beginning this beautiful project. May Allah make our work easy.”

In further remarks, he said: “You know the Mavi Marmara incident plunged all of us into grief. … At the end of the day, Furkan Doğan is the symbol of Israel’s injustice and aggression.”

Main sponsor of the project, FuatTürk, said he wanted to sponsor this project because he was very much influenced by Doğan’s desire to become a martyr.

“Our biggest gain will be making the youths who will be raised in this facility to take Furkan Doğan as an example to them,” he said.

Giving some information about the project, ŞabanSözduyar said: “We will construct a 100-bed capacity orphanage and a culture center. It will respond to the social, cultural and educational needs of the region’s children. These facilities will offer many activities to children and have a cinema and sports centers. We will complete the project within two years thanks to support from charity givers and sponsors. We expect everyone to contribute to this project.”

The “Furkan Doğan Culture Center Project” is expected to be completed within two years.