Fruitful Visit to Our Sister City Herne

The Beşiktaş Municipality sent a delegation of four people to the sister city Herne in Germany upon invitation on the first week of September with the purpose of carrying out a research about the disabled, elderly citizens, minorities and refugees.

The delegation included the Advisor to the Mayor Nurhan Palakoğlu, Murat Demirok who is the Head of the Beşiktaş Municipality’s Center for the Disabled, Psychologist Onur Çetinkaya and Social Services Specialist Mehmet Ali Şahin. During their visit, they were widely informed and took notes about some specific matters such as migration, education, adaptation, services for the disabled and other social policy practices in Herne.

The group had the opportunity to visit the Refugee Center and the ASB Senior Center in Herne and see the practices on site. They also had meetings with Adnan Mermertaş who works in North Rhine-Westphalia under the Ministry of National Education, and Muzaffer Oruç who is the President of the Herne Integration Council and Chief of Religious Affairs. At the meetings our delegation was informed about the current educational practices.

The Acting Mayor of the Herne Municipality and the Councillors of the Herne City gave a dinner in honor of our delegation and future projects and studies aimed at further improving mutual relations were discussed during the meal. It was emphasized that the good relations of the two municipalities would not only contribute to social, cultural and commercial affairs between Herne and Beşiktaş but also help to ease the current tense relations between Turkey and Germany.

On the last day of the four-day visit, our delegation had a sightseeing tour in Herne and Düsseldorf in company with the Herne Councillor Ms. Nurten Özçelik.