Looks like today’s theme is city news. I read with great joy that Istanbul was recommended as the European Cultural Capital for 2010 by an independent panel. The EU press release points that Essen and P?cs were also recommended along with Istanbul. Istanbul was competing against Kiev as the last non-EU candidate for 2010. As I understand Istanbul will be the last non-EU cultural capital since EU has decided to end the tradition of including non-EU countries in the cultural program. According to the press release, Istanbul set its theme as “Istanbul: City of the Four Elements” - a bridge between Europe and the East. The press release also mentions that the decision will be taken by the Culture Council in the second hald of 2006 under the Finnish presidency.
This comes as great news for Turkey, of course. As BBC points out “the significance of the choice is more than cultural”. The chairman of the selection panel, Sir Jeremy Isaacs said the Istanbul’s bid had been well prepared and highly effective. He also mentioned that the application had not began with either the Turkish government or with the Istanbul city government but with public-spirited citizens. Sir Isaacs also said that the advice presented by the jury was not political but that choices may have political implications.
Technorati Tags: Istanbul, EU, european cultural capital, turkey
[tags]Turkey, Istanbul, EU[/tags]
2 Comments
Great news! Hopefully this will help cement Turkey’s bid for EU membership.
Oh, and good on you, listening to the Descendants. Great stuff. We played “Nothing with you” a while back on Rocket Sauce. Love those guys.
Thanks…I hope the same too…
I heard them again in IR today and to my joy they were available in eMusic. I downloaded right away. It was the best way to spend some of that free 100 downloads that I had