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The partnership between the City of Science Darmstadt and the Turkish city of Bursa has gained new impetus: A delegation from the city theater from Bursa visited the City of Science Darmstadt after having previously participated in the 7th Turkish Theater Festival in Frankfurt.
After a visit to the literary house and discussions with the city’s cultural office, the guests were received in the town hall. The delegation visit took place as part of the anniversary of the city partnership Bursa-Darmstadt, which will be 50 years old in 2021. Mayor Jochen Partsch took the visit from Bursa as an opportunity to plead for closer German-Turkish relations. Political differences are currently shaping the public image. “We are connected by a lot more than what separates us – especially at the municipal level,” said the mayor. “We are extremely happy about the visit of our friends from Bursa, because such a meeting is a special sign of partnership in really difficult times. I would also like to take this personal meeting as an opportunity to meet with my colleague Alinur Aktaş, the mayor of Bursa, in the near future, in order to open up further opportunities for cooperation and friendly exchange. “
The delegation was led by Nuray Çelik, head of the organizational department of the city of Bursa. Other participants were the director of the city theater, Mehmet Ali Açıl, the director Mustafa Kurt and twelve members of the city ensemble. It was the first official visit from Bursa since January 2020. At that time, the university from Bursa took part in the ‘hobit’ for the first time, the annual university and career information days in the darmstadtium convention center. Since then, the Covid-19 pandemic has prevented joint face-to-face events, even though the city partnership was digitally promoted. Darmstadt and Bursa took part in the German-Turkish city partnership conferences in 2020 and 2021 and exchanged information online. Most recently, Mayor Partsch welcomed his colleague from Bursa, Mayor Alinur Aktaş, to the digital municipal policy workshop on the topics of ‘Sustainable Urban Development’ and ‘Sustainable Tourism’.
The meeting also addressed the ongoing burden of cultural workers from the consequences of the corona pandemic. Theater director Mehmet Ali Açıl and the chairman of the Darmstadt theater association ‘theaterquarantäne’, Victor Schönrich, also discussed possibilities for future cooperation.
All those involved hope that as the health situation improves, more art and theater performances can take place again. So far, almost 60,000 people have died in Turkey in connection with Covid-19, and the number of vaccinations given is just under 100 million.
Further information is available from the Office for Diversity and International Relations at vielfalt-international@darmstadt.de.
(Text: PM Science City Darmstadt)
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