The Turkish city of Konya adopts the experience of Kazan in celebrating the anniversary of the city

Lyudmila Andreeva told the Konya delegation about preparing the capital of Tatarstan for the millennium.

(KZN.RU, February 27, Ksenia Shvetsova). A delegation from the Turkish city of Konya is visiting Kazan. Representatives of the City Hall of the Turkish city came to find out how the capital of Tatarstan was preparing to celebrate the Millennium in 2005. Lyudmila Andreeva, the deputy head of the Kazan Municipality, told the guests about the features of preparing for the anniversary date. The meeting was held in the Kazan City Hall.

Next year, the Turkish city will celebrate its anniversary. It was formed 10 thousand years ago. The Turkish delegation arrived in Kazan to hold a festive event at a decent level, as well as use it to raise the popularity of the city. The guests plan to explore the experience of the capital of Tatarstan and learn the details of the work that was done on the eve of the celebration.

The celebration of the Millennium for Kazan in 2005 was one of the most important events and a powerful impetus to the development of the city, noted Lyudmila Andreeva. According to the deputy head of the Kazan Municipality, a large number of foreign scholars were involved to officially adopt the date of the Kazan foundation. The decree on the millennium of Kazan was signed by Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia.

L. Andreeva also added that a federal program was later adopted to restore the historical center of Kazan. It allowed to do a lot of work on the elimination of dilapidated and damaged housing, restoration of historical monuments in the city center.

In addition, under Mintimer Shaimiev the first President of the RT, the city was implementing the Program for the restoration of the historical center of Kazan and the Program for the elimination of dilapidated housing.

“We have set ourselves two main tasks: the socio-economic development of the city and the recognition of Kazan in the international arena”, she said. In order to achieve these goals, Kazan had joined many international organizations.

“The first organization we have entered is the organization of Islamic capitals and cities”, said Rasikh Sagitov, the general secretary of headquarters of the UCLG Eurasian Branch. “Then work began on including Kazan on the UNESCO World Heritage List, joining the Organization of World Heritage Cities”.

The Great Volga Route project, which has been implemented under the auspices of UNESCO for five years, has become one of the largest and most important for the development of Kazan and raising its awareness in the world, noted L. Andreeva. “We tried to use any event so that Kazan could be seen from the outside. We had many video presentations”, she added. After that, the guests were shown one of the presentation videos.

Darya Sannikova, the director of the Tourism Promotion Committee, told representatives of the Turkish delegation about the achievements of the capital of Tatarstan in the field of tourism. Thus, she noted that for the first time, Kazan entered the top five cities receiving more than 3 million tourists a year. Last year, the capital of RT was visited by 3 million 200 thousand guests. “Our city has a unique geographical location. You can easily get here from anywhere in the world. Now Kazan is represented by 230 accommodation facilities, the transport infrastructure is wide”, said D. Sannikova. “Interesting tourist routes have been created in Kazan, international festivals and various cultural events are being held”. She also added that today, the Kazan Airport is recognized as one of the best in Russia and Europe. Major sporting events help the development of tourism as well. For example, the capital of Tatarstan hosted 6 matches of the World Cup last year. A unique feature of the city is the peaceful coexistence of different religious denominations and a large number of Orthodox and Muslim churches, added D. Sannikova.

The same feature is inherent in the city of Konya, which was Orthodox many years ago, said Selim Yugel Gulech, the director of the Department of Foreign Relations and Tourism of the Turkish city. “We also have many Orthodox and Muslim churches, and we are also proud that people of different religions live in the peace as they do in Kazan”, he said.

Kazan’s experience in the development of tourism is unique for Konya Selim Yugel Gulech said. He explained that they are also planning to actively develop the tourism industry in their city, and the celebration of the centuries-old anniversary can play a special role in this.

A tour of the Kazan City Hall was held for the Turkish delegation as part of visiting Kazan. “We also have such a historic building in the city center, and now we know how we will use it”, said Selim Yugel Gulech. He added that now the building will be made the official residence of the City Hall and will host major cultural events and ceremonies.

At the end of the meeting, representatives of the Konya City Hall thanked L. Andreeva for a detailed story about Kazan and invited the Kazan delegation to attend the celebration of the Konya anniversary next year.

Photo report

The meeting with the delegation of the Turkish city of Konya, 02/27/2019