By Klaus Jurgens
No better way than to meet like-minded people from various nationalities and backgrounds if intercultural learning is your thing. So, when participants from eight different countries came to Didim earlier this week exactly that was on the agenda.
In a nutshell: travel cross-border, meet, discuss, agree or disagree yet always in harmony. Respect your opposite number, learn, tolerate, enjoy.
And as we have now witnessed for some time, a new wind is blowing in our shared hometown.
No, not the chilly winter storms that quite naturally hit our shores year after year! What I am talking about instead is the proactive, so much more welcoming interpersonal climate if I may say so which governs Didim. I, of course, mean and pay tribute to our mayor, Deniz Atabay.
On Monday January 12 our mayor was invited to a workshop composed of young attendees originally hailing from eight European and other countries.
Nationalities present were Albania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Italy, Romania, Russian Federation, Spain and Turkey.
At stake: non-formal education and its relevance as part of the European Union’s brand-new ‘Erasmus +’ – mobility grants funding scheme.
I was very happy about two matters related to their weeklong visit. First, what a pleasure to have off-peak season seminar and conference tourism coming our way!
Didim and its enterprising business community deserve nothing but that. More hotels, more restaurants to open their doors and I reckon more and more guests will come. A classic win-win situation!
Second, can you imagine what a positive impression was left in all the 25 participants while being welcomed at our mayor’s offices!
Granted, a mayor has many duties and being the head of the administration necessitates an almost 24/7 approach towards policy making. Yet one can make an exception, one can say ‘this visit by Europe’s and other country’s future leaders generation is important’.
With a coach kindly provided for by the town hall our participants were driven to the municipality and what a nice welcome it was indeed.
Not the typical five minute handshake photo op only, far from it. The mayor spoke, delegates spoke; questions were raised and answered.
I truly felt proud to being a part-time Didim resident due to my endless job-related travels although a full-time Didim resident by heart anyways.
Didim is ready for business during winter. Hotel rooms are clean, warm. Meeting rooms are available, too, with state of the art technology.
The municipality seems to agree if I may say so with all required modesty by opening its doors to say hello to a group of enthusiastic young people eager to share their ways of life with those of new acquaintances.
What next?
I hope we can attract many similar events to Didim. EU grants, other funds, commercial training seminars, you name it. It helps the local community to better understand that we all live in a share world and it helps our guests to appreciate what a fine country the Republic of Turkey is indeed.
It will help our very own non-governmental organizations to realize that there is wide world out there waiting to be explored.
Didim has over 100 associations and clubs and foundations and an ever growing young population. It has retired fold, citizens with disabilities, foreign residents and Turkish neighbors. It is a micro-cosmos of sorts.
By the time of going to press or online our international guests will have returned to their home countries.
I think they will bring back happy memories of a friendly place – Didim.
A big thank you to all who supported this venture including last not least Ankara’s System & Generation EU grants expert team who had planned and implemented the training course both professionally and in a charming manner, too.