The Mayor of Athens, Kostas Bakoyannis, is in Turkey these days in order to stimulate the preparation of the B40 Balkan Cities Network Summit, which will take place in Athens in January 2023.
Today, Sunday together with its Mayor Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu inaugurated a new park called B40 Park. A large number of Turks were there and greeted the Greek mayor with enthusiasm, wanting to be photographed with him. In fact, they interrupted his speech several times with applause, which did not stop either when the strained relations between Greece and Turkey were mentioned, nor when Erdogan's name was mentioned.
Several attendees stayed at the venue after the event to chat with K. Bakoyannis.
Despite all this, the Mayor of Athens stated that he will not go to Smyrna, after the suffering and diplomatic tussle in the person of the District Governor Apostolos Tzizikostas.
"It is really unimaginable for me to imagine, it is very difficult for me to understand how the free entry into a country, of a self-governing body, of a regional governor can be denied. Of a man, who, among other things, has also served as president of the committee of the EU regions. I want to believe that the necessary explanations will be given, but also the necessary apologies", said K. Bakoyannis.
"Despite the times, we wanted to send a very clear message that from the bottom up we can build strong bridges of cooperation, mutual understanding, mutual respect, dialogue... don't forget that the municipalities are the closest democratic institution to the citizen, which means that we have the possibility to interpret, if you like, better the feelings of our peoples".
