INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND MEMBERSHIP OF ÇANKAYA MUNICIPALITY

WHO EUROPEAN HEALTHY CITIES NETWORK

WHO HEALTHY CITIES PROJECT

HISTORIC PERSPECTIVE OF ÇANKAYA MUNICIPALITY ON WHO HEALTHY CITIES PROJECT

ÇANKAYA MUNICIPALITY CHRONOLOGY OF WHO EUROPEAN HEALTHY CITIES NETWORK

ÇANKAYA MUNICIPALITY AND TURKISH HEALTHY CITIES ASSOCIATION

ÇANKAYA MUNICIPALITY AND HISTORIC CITIES ASSOCIATION

PROTECTED AREAS AND REGISTERED BUILDINGS IN ÇANKAYA

INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS

ÇANKAYA, THE CAPITAL OF INTERNATIONAL FRIENDSHIP AND BROTHERHOOD

Çankaya states in the position as the heart of the capital Ankara. The public institutions, embassies, representatives of international organizations, universities and cultural centers located in Çankaya render a unique role for our district and municipality. In this sense, Çankaya is also the capital of culture, art and science, where relations of production are diversified and commercial activities are stating at the highest level. Our Municipality has been implementing related studies and projects that would be a model for the field of local government with the consciousness of these special circumstances.

As a requirement of "New Generation Municipality" concept; Çankaya Municipality thinks that those relations are important at the level of governments as well as at the level of local governments at a time which international relations have diversified and multiplied. As a result of this thought and approach, the Directorate of Foreign Affairs has been established within our Municipality and it is planned that the activities to be carried out by Çankaya Municipality in international environment will be much more functional and institutional.

In this sense, Çankaya Municipality has become a municipality which has taken part among member municipalities of the World Health Organization (WHO) European Healthy Cities Project Network with the planning and project studies it carried out recently and a municipality follows the European Union programs and projects and implements them in urban scale.

Çankaya Municipality had been the pioneering municipality which accepted the "Health 2020" basic strategy document determined by the World Health Organization and applied this program in Turkey. Accordingly, "Health 2020" sets out the concept of equality in health and health for all. While our Municipality’s projects, studies and practices are crowned with many awards such as our studies aimed at children and our projects aimed at young and old people and individuals with disabilities; they had also been examples for other municipalities. The reflection of European Union membership process to the local administrations of our country’s local governments is seen as an important fact in the projects and works of our municipality.

In this context, our studies such as Climate Resilience through Rain Harvesting, European Voluntary Service Project and Nature4Cities project within Horizon 2020 can be seen as important steps and example practices. Our Municipality had also been among the European cities which signed the Covenant of Mayors regarding Strategy for combating climate change in city scale. Again as a reflection of the contemporary understanding of local government, our Municipality has prepared and implemented the local equality action plan in the social field, in addition to the establishment of the "Directorate of Family and Women Services" at this point, a style based on "gender equality" has been adopted in the works and practices of our municipality.

In addition to this, Çankaya Municipality has also entered into the process of cooperation and experience interchange within the context of sister city relations with city governments of different countries. In the past few months, a sister city agreement was signed with Dongcheng Municipality which is the center district of People's Republic of China's capital Beijing and a delegation headed by our Mayor Alper TAŞDELEN made related contacts. As a continuation of this process, opportunities for cooperation have been laid on the table at the senior managers and experts.

On the other hand, as the requirement of a multidimensional international relationship, our municipality has set a target in front within a program to improve friendship and fraternal ties with Balkan countries.

In this respect, the first study was carried out with implementation of common cultural and social events with the Centar District of Skopje, Macedonia's capital. While "Balkan Turks Culture Night" activities were held in Macedonia in three different cities; Skopje, Ohrid and Struga, these activities attracted great interest both in Macedonia and in our national public opinion. The main structure of the activities organized in the land where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was grown and met with the idea of enlightenment had been the thought of "From Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's District, Çankaya to the Balkans, where the Basis of the Republic Idea was laid… On the Way of Enlightened Turkey".

This approach was welcomed with enthusiasm in Macedonia, and our visits, contacts and events created an intense love and attracted great attention. At this point, it is evident that Çankaya Municipality will attach importance to bilateral relations, and projects based on friendship and fraternity in local scale will be implemented with many countries especially the Balkans. In the meantime, Çankaya Municipality Hoy-Tur Folk Dance Group has become a globally well-known brand.

Hoy-Tur is now the chief culprit of our cultural relations which has been inviting by many countries of the world to various cultural festivals and contributes carrying our country and culture to different geographies… The music and folk dance group festivals we have attended in France, America, Macedonia, Italy and Romania are colored with the shows of Hoy-Tur.

Participating in international conferences has been another fact that highlighted in recent works of our municipality. Our Municipality’s projects and works have been presented by our related experts and managers, and received a great attention at scientific meetings all over the world, from this point of view, the reflection of our Municipality’s works on scientific reports in various respectable international conferences and platforms held in South Korea, Finland, China, and Belgium has been a proud development for our country.

Our Municipality has very good relations with the country representatives and Embassies operating within the boundaries of our district in Ankara. Çankaya Municipality hosts dozens of Embassies in cultural and artistic events for every year. While 2016-2017 culture and arts events began with the exhibition of the South African Embassy, the joint projects, exhibitions and concerts with the French, Hungarian, Austrian, Israeli, Swedish and Finnish Embassies had been the highlighted events in autumn.

While our Municipality host to the Italian Films Week, the Spanish Film Days, and the Greek Films Festival every year, it seems certain that the number of film festivals will increase this year. For example, "Latin America and Caribbean Film Festival" awaits its enthusiasts in December. Our ties with Embassies located in Çankaya and our joint projects vary not only in the cultural arena, but also diversified in projects and works in social and technical fields.

In terms of our projects developed in accordance with the law of bilateral international relations together with the Embassies in line with the opinions and affirmations of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, park projects will be first standing out. Our Çankaya is almost becoming a country garden.

While "Jose Marti Park" takes place in a very beautiful place in Ayrancı which planned with the Cuban Embassy, Atatürk Park where the Playa Municipality hosts in the Cuban Capital of Havana is also proud of us as a symbol of Turkey's Cuban Friendship. The story of each park requires pages of writing. Even listing the names of our parks will be enough to explain the significance we have given to international friendship and solidarity.

The names of the countries and values we gave to children's parks and playgrounds such as; Simon Bolivar Park, Pablo Neruda Park, Alexander Dubcek Park, Ukrayna (Ukraine) Podil Park, Meksika (Mexico) Park, Clemens Holzmeister Park, Gazze (Gaza) Park, Miranda Park, Cengiz Han (Genghis Khan) Park, Ekvator Cumhuriyeti (Ecuadorian Republic Park), Polonya (Poland) Frederic Chopin Park and Louis Braille Park now live in Çankaya and they are referred to the symbols and values of our district.

We continue to work with the embassies in this context; "Makedonya Dostluk Park (Macedonia Friendship Park)" in Çankaya and "Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Park" in Skopje will be opened with ceremonies next year. These two parks can be seen as the modest contribution of our municipality to the development of friendship and brotherhood among countries.

Çankaya is a district where the international support is born and diversified in every direction. Our efforts and projects are building bridges among peoples, and developing inter-country relations in a multidimensional way, especially in culture and art in a period when the Earth and our geography are in need of peace and friendship. At this point, the links we have established and will establish with different countries and international institutions will enable our city to develop and will enable us to bring urban innovations to our Çankaya or transfer "Çankaya Experience" to other countries at the point of sharing our knowledge and experience.

International Relations of Çankaya Municipality has been forming and maintaining by the Directorate of Foreign Affairs of Çankaya Municipality.

Directorate of Foreign Affairs of Çankaya Municipality

The main aim of the Directorate of Foreign Affairs of Çankaya Municipality is to carry out studies in coordination with relevant departments in order to develop local democracy and to offer services provided by the municipality to international standards based on effective management, quality service and contemporary urban understanding defined as the ''New Generation Municipality''.

All studies undertaken in this area is carried out in line with the principles set out in the European Urban Charter, and by taking committed standards into account promised by the World Health Organization's Healthy Cities Network and gender equality.

The Directorate follows all the examples, models, programs and projects related to the local government activities, provides information, experience and practice exchange with other local government of different countries in order to realize international joint projects. Directorate of Foreign Affairs establishes sister city relations and performs studies in order to transfer other country’s urban experiences to Çankaya.

The Directorate also prepares foreign daily press summary and carries out the procedures of forming and translating relevant documents for the Municipality’s English web site in coordination with the Directorate of Information Processing and makes the all other document translations of Çankaya Municipality.

Main Duties of the Directorate of Foreign Affairs

Making the necessary efforts to develop the relations of the municipality with national and international organizations, local government networks and non-governmental organizations related to local administrations, realizing memberships with the eligible organizations and participating actively in the related activities; coordinating our municipal work in the area of gender equality,

Providing coordination with all the units to prepare our municipality for the EU and conducting necessary studies in the process of European Union candidacy of our country; establishing partnerships and sister city relations with foreign municipalities, especially with European Union member countries and developing strategic project partnerships,

Organizing related events and developing sister city cooperations between our municipality and other municipalities of our country in order to ensure the exchange of knowledge, experience and good practices; organizing overseas cultural and technical inspection visits for senior managers, councilors and related staff of the municipality according to their fields,

Preparing projects by working in coordination with relevant units of the municipality and carrying out the necessary studies for financing to support the project implementations; working for the branding of the city by attracting more investment into municipal boundaries and improving tourism capacity and strengthening the administrative and technical management capacity of the municipality in this direction; organizing exchange programs, seminars and conferences for the development of administrative and technical capacity,

Hosting permanent representations of embassies and international organizations within the municipal boundaries in best way, and establishing activities to enrich city life, especially in social and cultural areas, within the framework of good bilateral relations,

Developing and supporting good relations with public institutions, universities and non-governmental organizations in order to support the successful implementation of strategic priorities; developing programs and projects to ensure collective integration of disadvantaged groups living in the city; contributing to the solution by participating in programs and projects developed against the effects of global and regional problems, especially climate change and refugees.

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