Hayri ÖZKAYA
Our Founder
01.01.1932 Gaziantep - 01.01.2012 Gaziantep
One day a man comes to the palace of the old sage. He says; can you tell me the secret of happiness? The sage takes a look at the man and gives him a spoon filled with oil and says: 'Take this spoon, visit my palace, then tell me what you see. But don't spill the oil on the spoon.” ‘Okay,’ says the young man, he takes the spoon full of oil and starts to walk around, and after two hours he comes back to the sage.
The sage asks: 'Have you visited my palace?' The man nods his head as if to say yes. 'Well, have you seen the roses in my garden of paradise?' The man answers 'no'. The sage asks again; 'And the newborn foals?' 'No'. 'My fragrant pine trees?' 'No'. 'The tiles on the walls of my palace?' 'No'... Whatever the sage asks, the man answers 'no'. Tired of saying no, the man says, 'I couldn't look at anything so as not to spill the oil on the spoon.
The sage gives him another spoon full of oil, 'take this spoon and travel again, but this time don't come without seeing the beauty of my universe'. An hour or two later the man comes back to the sage. Before the sage could ask, he excitedly began to describe what he had seen. 'The foals running around the farm and the kids playing with their mothers reminded me of my childhood. I couldn't count how many roses there are in your garden. But I liked the red roses the most. The ducklings in the small pond were also very cute. One could spend a lifetime watching them. Your palace is very big, especially those magnificent marble columns that look like elephant's feet. I especially noticed the tiles. The craftsmen who made them must have worked very hard...' The man is so excited that he cannot contain himself. 'Well', says the sage, gesturing with his hand, 'did you bring back my spoon as I gave it to you?' 'Of course I did', says the man. He hands the spoon to the sage, and what does he see? There is no oil left in the spoon.
'Here, my son,' says the sage who sees the situation. 'The secret of happiness is to experience all the beauties of life and to realize them. But don't forget the spoonful of oil in your hand.
Yes, dear friends. As the sage said, isn't it time to pick up our spoons again, not to forget them, but to pick up the spoons we put down? You are right, it is. We thought so too, and we will continue to work without dropping the spoon from our hand and the oil from the spoon to take Gürteks, which we have been growing without a break since 1970, to the highest level. Our group, which serves in many areas, will continue to make new investments together with all my staff, whom I call my family....