Kahramanmaraş Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Hayrettin Güngör attended the Second Ordinary Assembly Meeting of the Union of Historical Towns held in Istanbul. The meeting, which was attended by Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Faruk Göksu, Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Fatma Şahin, Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Memduh Büyükkılıç, district mayors and directors of Çekül Foundation, was chaired by Hayrettin Güngör. Providing information about the works carried out in Kahramanmaraş at the assembly session, the President of the Union of Historical Towns Güngör said, "Kahramanmaraş will set an example for Türkiye."

Mayor Güngör said, “Today, there is an idea that we have intensively put on our agenda, especially with the global pandemic. It has been quite rightly said that new countries are now the cities. In the long term, we will live in a world where self-sufficient cities stand out. I will give you two examples from my beautiful city, Kahramanmaraş. The first one is our ice cream tradition that started with the transport of snow from Ahırdağı to the city. That tradition has produced the flavor we call Maraş Ice Cream over the years and is now known all over the world. I will give another example from textiles. If it were not for the memory created by the fabrics that our mothers wove on looms called Istar, perhaps we would not be able to talk about such a large textile industry in Kahramanmaraş today."

Stating that the concept of historical towns should be considered in terms of urban genetics and innovation, Hayrettin Güngör said, “We will both rely on the genetics we have accumulated over centuries and even millennia, and use this genetics to develop the idea of self-sufficient cities in an innovative way. As the Metropolitan Municipality, besides protecting our history with the restorations we have made, we continue the city design moves that we carry out with feverish preparation. We want to present an exemplary urban genetics projection for Türkiye with our UNESCO application process and many more. And we want to crown this process with an exemplary plan we call the Cultural Development Action Plan. With the contributions of our Ministry of Culture, we are creating a plan that includes the tangible and intangible heritage, includes the literature and the cultural assets of the city, keeps them alive and creates its economic outputs. In this context, I hope we will organize the 1st International Kahramanmaraş Poetry and Literature Days this year.”


https://kahramanmaras.bel.tr/haber/2020/09/28/kahramanmaras-turkiyeye-ornek-olacak