Following on from the Antalya Mudur Tour where I managed to get my son a Residence permit by doing a tour of the head officials in Antalya with my Kilt on, I was then invited to go to Ankara for the official Migrants day celebrations in Turkey…..again, as long as I wore my Kilt.
Well, I could hardly turn down such an offer, especially as I had never been to Ankara before and all expenses were being covered.
The same group from the previous day out as well as a couple of extra people met up at the Immigration offices early in the morning and took a minibus which arrived at the Conference centre around 4pm.
The centre was situated beside a large lake which was frozen over, although I wouldn’t have been brave enough to actually walk on it to test just how much.
Ankara is situated in the middle of Turkey and has a totally different climate to Antalya in that it does get a lot of snow in the Winter and is obviously much colder in general at that time of year but on the plus side it does thaw out pretty well in the Summer.
The Migrants, some staff members and the Bus Driver all took our seats for Dinner and got to know each other a bit better although no alcohol was covered on the tab despite the Wine glasses being in place.
After the meal was done and dusted we headed to the main hall to set up our Antalya stall which was complimented with lots of Oranges to dish out, as it is the emblem of the city.
Then we all got changed and took our seats in the presentation room in the basement of the Hotel.
Can you spot me from the photo taken from the stage? It is a little bit difficult but I am in there, well at least half my face.
The cool baby photo was taken and posted on an official site, perhaps to symbolise the Freemasonry Vow of Silence, or perhaps I’m just nuts. 😉
Here is the Antalya team with the Head of Immigration for the whole of Turkey.
I got chatting to him a bit and he told me he and his wife have been to Edinburgh a couple of times and they really loved it, so I took the opportunity to stick my Jimmy hat on him for a photo, much to the amusement of the rest of the team and indeed him and his wife.
Some other VIP people were doing the rounds and we had to offer them Oranges or Turunç, which is a type of Marmalade made from Bitter Oranges, whose trees originate from China.
I was busy hanging out with the Rastaman though, although not quite in the same way I did while I was in Jamaica.
Here I am with Başak whose Paintings were a prominent feature of our display and some other Migrants who have settled in other parts of the Country.
Wearing the Kilt I got asked for a photo quite often by people who had never seen a man in a skirt in real life before, which kept me busy for most of the evening so I had to leave the official duties of stall presenting to the other members of the team.
When I got asked by someone wearing their local headdress I couldn’t resist the opportunity for a quick swap for the photo.
I had also brought some Wigs with me, just in case of emergencies and towards the end of the event I got Yesol from South Korea to model one, which she was very happy to do.
I think it suited her pretty well, although she didn’t go the whole hog and die her real hair blonde afterwards.
There was also an art exhibition on at the Hotel from Children who have been displaced due to a crisis in their home country, with quite a few of them showing people in boats.
We had worked up a good appetite and so before going to another Hotel to stay for the evening we were taken to a Kebab restaurant.
After stuffing our fill we got a member of staff to take a picture of the group and the restaurant delivery driver, who couldn’t resist joining in.
There were a couple of articles about the conference on offical government websites. Here is the first.
And the second.
There was also a more thorough report of the events than mine written in English from the Fethiye Times.
The Photos
Immigrant Children’s Drawings
Cheers!
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