Beşiktaş Municipality contributes to a New International Partnership!

The long-established sister city relationship between the cities of Beşiktaş and Erlangen, which was initiated with a protocol in 2003, has been flourished with a new partnership in the field of education between two schools. The Christian-Ernst Gymnasium in Erlangen and the Kabataş Erkek Lisesi in Beşiktaş signed a sister school partnership protocol with the support of the Beşiktaş Municipality and the Erlangen Municipality.

A delegation from our sister city Erlangen in Germany came to Beşiktaş for this partnership. The delegation, which included Erlangen Vice-Mayor Ms. Elisabeth Preuß, Erlangen Municipality’s Foreign Affairs Coordinator Silvia Klein and the Principal of the Christian Ernst Gymnasium Mr. Thomas Kellner, also paid a visit to the Beşiktaş Mayor Mr. Rıza Akpolat on Thursday, May 16, 2019. During the visit, both sides exchanged their ideas on joint prospective projects in the fields of arts, culture, education, economy and trade.

Upon the recommendation of the Erlangen delegation, the Beşiktaş Municipality also decided to join the Mayors for Peace Organization. Mayor Akpolat said they will be pleased to be a member of such a meaningful anti-war organization.

Mayors for Peace is an impartial non-governmental organization comprised of 7,756 cities (including our sister city Erlangen) from 163 countries. The purposes of the "Mayors for Peace" are to contribute to the attainment of lasting world peace by arousing concern among citizens of the world for the total abolition of nuclear weapons through close solidarity among member cities as well as by striving to solve vital problems for the human race such as starvation and poverty, the plight of refugees, human rights abuses, and environmental degradation. The administrators of local governments take part in this organization with a view to attain their goal of achieving a city free from wars and weapons.