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International Old City Festival in Turkey sends an important message to the world

Upon the invitation of the Mayor of Muratpaşa Municipality of Antalya, Turkey, Umit Uysal, the delegation of Ukmergė District Municipality took part in the International Kaleici Old City Festival on 13-17 October.

Daiva Zimblienė, Deputy Head of the Information Technology and Public Relations Section of the City Administration, and Domantas Zubrickis, Chief Manager of Cultural Activities at the Ukmergė Museum of Local History, travelled to Turkey.

The 7th Kaleici International Old City Festival welcomed 52 cities from 27 countries - from the Balkans to Europe, from North Africa to the Middle East and South-East Asia, including the island countries of Cyprus, Malta and Ireland. There were representatives from three municipalities in Lithuania: Alytus, Klaipėda and Ukmergė.

The Festival organisers invited representatives of cities that have their own historic old cities to come together to discuss the problems of maintaining and preserving old cities, the solutions, and to share experiences.

The Festival, which started on 13 October, lasted for four days, but on the weekend all music, entertainment and stage events were cancelled due to a mining accident in the Amasra district of Bartin.

The tricolour national flag of Lithuania was prominently displayed at the Festival events, not only in all public spaces of the city where the Festival participants gathered, but also in the municipality of Muratpaşa during the welcoming ceremony of its mayor, U. Uysal, in the Festival's gala parade, in the Kaleici Old City Forum 2022 and on the top of the 2,366-metre-high mountain near the Kemer resort, where the festival guests spent the last day of their stay in Antalya.

The most important event of the Festival was the Kaleici Old City Forum 2022, the topic of which was "Environmentally friendly municipal practices for sustainable tourism in living old towns". Representatives of foreign cities shared the works and projects in their historic city centres and archaeological heritage sites.

Following the speeches, Mayor U. Uysal announced the "Kaleici Old City Forum 2022" declaration, which is the cities' commitment to the environment and cultural integrity. The text of this declaration will be shared with relevant institutions and organisations, and copies will be sent to the United Nations (UN) and UNESCO, a specialised body of the United Nations.

"Historic city centres should be combined with local development plans that provide a satisfying, comprehensive and fair-paced experience of the different spheres of life, stimulate the senses of visitors, and preserve local identity, biodiversity and nature," are the key statements in the Declaration.

It also provides recommendations to politicians all over the world on the seasonal structure of the tourism sector, the rapid depletion of water resources, greenhouse gas emissions from energy sources used for transport, heating, cooling and lighting, the collection and disposal of liquid and solid waste, the culture of consumption, etc.

The Declaration was unanimously adopted and solemnly signed by the representatives of all the foreign delegations attending the Festival.

„The Kaleici Old City Festival is a non-political space, which is sorely needed lately, an agreement beyond the conflict zones - a manifestation of unity and solidarity for our future generations. After all, all cultural treasures, wherever they are in the world, are the common heritage of humanity.  I hope that the 7th Festival can bring people together to work towards the same goals. I am happy that the world has met in Kaleici, where tourism never stops for 12 months. Kaleici's Old City dates back 2,200 years, and life is very fast-paced everywhere. I hope that new generations will experience the lives of those who live here now and all the different civilisations," said the Mayor of Muratpaşa.

After meeting with Lithuanian representatives, the Mayor of Muratpaşa, U. Uysal, expressed his satisfaction that a Lithuanian cultural park was opened in this popular Turkish city in spring this year and expressed his wish to further cooperate with the cities of our country by establishing mutual relations. 

"We are willing to cooperate with your cities on all issues and will be happy to sign joint projects. We have no reserves, we have no limits. We trust in the power of a sense of cooperation between cities. We are ready to be brothers and sisters with all cities that want to protect their cultural values and contribute to world peace. That is what we want. We want to work with all cities around the world that have this feeling and desire - no matter how many people live there, regardless of their geography, region, language or culture", said Mayor U. Uysal.

Daiva Zimblienė, Deputy Head of the Information Technology and Public Relations Department