Celebrating 9 May - Europe Day - in Ankara
The Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria in Ankara, jointly with the State Institute for Culture with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, made a presentation of Bulgaria in the framework of the Europe Day celebrations in Turkey’s capital, which were organised by the European Commission Delegation to Turkey and the Turkish General Secretariat on European Affairs. The programme of the one-day European Festival included various events, e.g. promotional materials at pavilions of the EU Member States, musical and dance performances by groups from the participating countries and from Turkey, cycling tour of the Turkish capital, open-air concert and video transmission of the festivities taking place at the same time in Istanbul.Representatives of the Bulgarian Embassy and their colleagues from the missions of the other EU Member States took part in a cycling tour of Ankara. The tour was headed by the minister of European affairs and Turkey's chief negotiator Egemen Bagiş. The event received a vast coverage in the Turkish media. A “Bulgarian Tree” was planted in a spot
in Gençlik Park in central Ankara that was specially designed for the European Union. Bulgaria’s pavilion was next to the pavilions of the other EU Member States, and it showed films about Bulgaria.The well-organised Bulgarian participation in these initiatives facilitated the visitors in perceiving this country’s image, since Bulgaria’s European development was of particular interest for the citizens of neighbouring Turkey. It could certainly be said that the Bulgarian pavilion was amongst the most popular ones on the territory of the “European village”, and this was easy to explain, largely because of the proximity of the two countries, the variety of human contacts between them, and the good-neighbourly bilateral relations.