52 cities from 27 countries from Southeast Asia to Northern Europe participated in the Kaleiçi Old Town Festival, which was held for the 7th time by Antalya Muratpaşa Municipality on October 13-16. Chiang Mai, one of the most popular touristic cities of Thailand, which is about 13 thousand kilometers away, and Cork, the most important city of Ireland after the capital Dublin, came together in Kaleiçi.
BALKANS AT THE FESTIVAL In the festival, from Balkan countries North Mitrovica from Kosovo, Prizren, Pristina Zavidovici from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jajce, Visoko, Mostar, Pogradec from Albania, Burgas from Bulgaria, Kazanlak, Biograd from Croatia, Svetvincenat, Pljevlja from Montenegro and North Kavadarci from Macedonia took part.
EUROPEAN CITIES Among the Central European countries, Linz, which is also one of the provincial capitals of Austria, Heusenstamm from Germany, Prague 6 and Pribor from Czechia, Zamosc from Poland, Katowice, Radom, from Hungary where Suleiman the Magnificent made his last expedition and died. Zigetvar was among the participating countries of the festival.
Sicily was among the guests of the festival, along with the cities of Gradara, Urbino, Taormina, Noto and Randazzo from Italy, a southern European country. Belgium Brugge from Western Europe, Bender from Eastern European countries Transnistria, Comrat and Çadır Lunga from Gagauzia, Ternopil from Ukraine, Kamyanets-Podilski will also take part in the festival, from Northern Europe to Lithuania's Ukmerge, Klaipeda, Alytus and The Romanian cities of Salonta were also included.
ISLAND COUNTRIES The island countries Nicosia and Kyrenia from the TRNC, North and South, East and West Regional Councils from Malta and the most densely populated settlement of the island and Sliema, which also means 'Peace', participated in the festival, which is also an island country from Northern Europe. Cork, Ireland's second largest city, is also located.
The cities of La Goulette from Tunisia, a North African country, Poti, Kutaisi, Telavi from the Caucasian country Georgia, Bethlehem from Palestine from the Middle East and Chiang Mai from Thailand from Southeast Asia also participated in the festival.
MAYORAL-LEVEL REPRESENTATION 30 of the 52 cities that participated in the festival were represented at the level of mayors. Austria Linz Mayor Klaus Luger, Malta Sliema Mayor John Pillow, Ireland Cork Mayor Danny Collins, Hungary Zigetvar Mayor Peter Vass were among the guest mayors.
SISTER CITY PROTOCOLS This year, the festival also hosted the 'sister city' protocol signing ceremony with the Municipality of Muratpaşa and the cities of Gradara from Italy, La Goulette from Tunisia and Comrat, the capital of Gagauzia, an autonomous republic under Moldova. Gradara Mayor Filippo Gasperi, La Goulette Mayor Amel Limam and Comrat Mayor Sergey Anastasov attended the ceremony held at Türkan Şoray Cultural Center.
The ceremony, where mayors from four countries came together on the same stage, started with the playing of the National Anthem and the national anthems of the guest countries. At the ceremony, Mayor Uysal said that they have developed very strong relations and ties with cities that have signed sister city protocols over the years. President Uysal said, “Personally, we are like brothers and sisters” and that cities will cooperate from now on.
During the festival, together with the sister city protocols, a goodwill and cooperation protocol was signed by Mayor Ümit Uysal and Georgia Telavi Mayor Levan Andriashvili.
A MESSAGE FROM KALEİÇİ TO THE WORLD As part of Kaleiçi Old Town Festival, Kaleiçi Old Town Forum-2022 was held at the Türkan Şoray Cultural Center of the municipality.
The forum, which started with the presentation of Mayor Ümit Uysal, was held this year with the title of "Environmentalist Activities for Sustainable Tourism in Living Historical Cities". In the forum, cities shared their work and projects in their historical city centers and archaeological heritage sites.
After the presentations, Mayor Uysal announced the Kaleiçi Old Town Forum-2022 declaration, which is the commitment of cities towards the environment and cultural integrity. President Uysal stated that the text will be shared with relevant institutions and organizations, especially the UN and UNESCO. The announced declaration was accepted unanimously and was signed by all cities with a ceremony.
The declaration, which offers policy recommendations on topics such as the seasonal structure of the tourism sector, rapidly depleting water resources, greenhouse gas emissions caused by energy sources used for transportation, heating, cooling and lighting, collection and disposal of liquid and solid waste, and consumption culture, included the following statements:
“Historic urban centers should be combined with a local development model that will enable activities in different areas of life to be experienced in a satisfying, in-depth and correct pace, stimulate the senses of their visitors, and preserve local identity, biodiversity and natural environment.”
LIVING OLD TOWN KALEİÇİ TELLS ITS STORIES Within the scope of the festival, Muratpaşa Municipality took the history of daily life in Kaleiçi out of the ballot boxes and brought it to the present with a special documentary work. Spaces of Memory and Cultural Heritage-Antalya Kaleiçi Houses project, the work in which the history of the houses in the living ancient city is explained, was introduced at the 7th Kaleiçi Old Town Festival.
The history of Antalya Kaleiçi houses, which collect stories in its wide courtyard, behind its windows hidden in bougainvillea, in front of its door opening to a narrow street, brought together in the Memory Spaces and Cultural Heritage - Antalya Kaleiçi Houses project of Muratpaşa Municipality.
The project was introduced with a ceremony held at Koç University Suna & İnan Kıraç Mediterranean Civilizations Research Center (AKMED) as part of the 7th Kaleiçi Old Town Festival. Delegations from 52 cities from 27 countries, and names from Antalya's business, art and politics worlds, who met in Kaleiçi for the festival, attended the promotion hosted by Mayor Ümit Uysal and his wife Ümran Uysal.
