František Knapík, the Mayor of Košice, received Tunç Űgdűla, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Turkey, at the historic town hall. The Ambassador met with the members of the European Capital of Culture Košice 2013 project team and with Peter Markovič, the Director of the East-Slovakian Gallery in Košice.

“In this one-hour meeting we presented the application of Košice for the European Capital of Culture title. We highlighted the openness of the city and of the project to the artists and visitors from all around Europe, especially from the countries beyond the Schengen border. This is among the priorities of the Košice project. We also discussed the experience of the city of Istanbul in the preparing of their project which turned out successful,“ said Alena Vachnová from the ECOC Košice 2013 project team.

Istanbul won the ECOC title for 2010 along with the cities of Pécs and Essen, as a non-EU city, which the old rules had allowed. Several suggestions were made in the meeting regarding some joint Slovak-Turkish projects to be carried out in Košice and in Turkey as early as in 2009. “The Ambassador interestedly welcomed a number of options for cooperation we indicated and he offered the project team his support and assistance on the implementation of such projects. The Mayor of Košice and the members of the project team are visiting the Turkish partner cities of Bursa and Istanbul at the end of April to specify some other domains of potential cooperation and some joint projects,“ added Vachnová.

Text: Zuzana Lehotská