EU-Turkey Civil Society Dialogue: Cultural Bridges
This programme is funded by the European Union
My City which aims to build a cultural bridge between Turkey and EU has started by the launch reception at the presence of David Milliband, British Foreign Secretary; Egemen Bağış, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator and Nick Baird, British Ambassador.
On the 26th of May, five selected Turkish cities were announced at an event, hosted by the delegation to the European Commision and the British Embassy. The Mayors, governors and rectors of all five cities travelled from all four corners of Turkey, to join David Miliband, British Foreign Secretary; Egemen Bağış, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator; Nick Baird, British Ambassador and Marc Pierini, Ambassador, Head of Delegation of the EC to Turkey attended the reception.
Miliband launched the programme with a ringing endorsement of the critical role the arts and cultural relations play in political change:
“There is an intimate connection, between progress in politics and progress in culture”.
“Sometimes art and culture on the one hand, and politics on the other, are strange bedfellows. But actually I don’t think that you can succeed in politics unless you see contact between people, and cultural contact, as an important part of the equation. I believe that the creation of this project is an important signal of growing links between Turkey and EU and its success will be harbinger, signal, of the project of integration between Turkey and the EU. So to the majors and governors here, I say thank you for charting the future”.
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