Bilfen students give 10 November recital at Atatürk’s Thessaloniki birthplace

The Bilfen Educational Institutions Philharmonic Orchestra performed at the Atatürk House in Thessaloniki as part of the 10 November Atatürk Remembrance Week. Türkiye’s Consulate General in Thessaloniki thanked the students and everyone who contributed to the event.

The Bilfen Educational Institutions Philharmonic Orchestra held a musical recital in the garden of the Atatürk House in Thessaloniki as part of the 10 November Atatürk Remembrance Week. The recital took place at the house where Atatürk was born, ahead of the 88th anniversary of his death.

In a statement issued on November 7, Türkiye’s Consulate General in Thessaloniki thanked the students who delivered the unique recital with their outstanding performances. The consulate also expressed its gratitude to Nurşen Kayatürk, coordinator of the Bilfen Educational Institutions, and all the institution’s administrators and teachers; Zeynep Erkan, the institution’s culture and arts adviser and a violinist with the Presidential Symphony Orchestra; and members of the press who followed the event.

Photographs released by the consulate show students in red uniforms taking their places in the house’s garden with violins, cellos and guitars. A large portrait of Atatürk was hung on the facade, and a speech was also delivered from the house’s balcony as part of the remembrance program.

Bilfen students performing in the garden of the Atatürk House in Thessaloniki

The house where Atatürk was born

The house in Thessaloniki where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was born in 1881 opened to visitors as a museum on November 10, 1953, the day Atatürk’s remains were transferred to Anıtkabir. His father, Ali Rıza Efendi, also died in this house.

Following an extensive restoration lasting approximately 11 months and launched by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in December 2024, the house reopened to visitors at a ceremony attended by Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy on November 9 last year. At the opening, Ersoy said the house would become a center of cultural diplomacy.

Commemorative photograph taken after the recital in Thessaloniki

500,000 visitors a year

Following the restoration, the house’s history began to be presented in the basement, an ethnographic exhibition was installed on the middle floor, and Atatürk’s years in Thessaloniki began to be explored on the upper floor. The house also contains a room dedicated to Atatürk and his family, a room dedicated to Zübeyde Hanım, and a library.

Türkiye’s Ambassador to Athens, Çağatay Erciyes, said at last year’s opening ceremony that the house had reached 500,000 visitors annually. Erdoğan also visited the house in 2003 as prime minister and, in Ersoy’s words, became the first Turkish prime minister to visit it.

Photographs: Republic of Türkiye Consulate General in Thessaloniki

Bilfen students give 10 November recital at Atatürk’s Thessaloniki birthplace