April 11^th

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic met with His Excellency, the Ambassador of Turkey in Serbia Mr. Tanju Bilgiç on the occasion of his first official visit to our city. At the meeting held at Nis City Hall the two officials discussed the modalities of future cooperation between the City of Nis and the Turkish Embassy in Serbia in the fields of economy, and culture.

The Ambassador said that the large number of Turkish investors was interested in investing in Serbia and that Nis was particularly interesting because of its geographical position, but also because of the qualified skilled workforce.

The mayor expressed his hopes that, in the future, the passenger flight on the route Nis-Istanbul would be established and that it was a common task that City and Embassy of Turkey should be implementing.

Later on the Ambassador and the Mayor were joined by students from Nis primary and secondary schools who were going to participate at the children’s music festival “Serbia in the Rhythm of Europe”. The pupils from Nis will compete by performing songs and dances from Turkey. The festival will be held in late June in Sombor, and if they win, their reward will be free travel to Turkey. The team from Nis consists of 10 dancers and 2 singers.

The Ambassador and the Mayor greeted the children, and the Ambassador said that one of the reasons why he came to Nis that day was to meet the children who would compete in the Festival representing Turkey. The Embassy of Turkey has been supporting this Festival for past 8 years. The aim of the Festival is to recognize and promote young talents in accordance with the European Charter on the Participation of Young People in municipal and regional level.

April 11^th

Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic opened the exhibition entitled The Caravan of Kovacica Naïve Painting at Nis Officers’ Mess Building. The exhibition includes more than 50 works of painters of naive art and for the first time, in one place, it gathered all the members of the Gallery of Naive Art of Kovacica, which is, on the world cultural map, known as the center of naïve painting. The opening of the exhibition was attended by the Nis City Council Member Mrs. Jelena Mitrovski as well as the President of Kovacica Municipality Mr. Milan Garasevic, who was the creator of the whole idea of the caravan of naïve paintings. The characteristics of Naive Art from Kovacica are strong colors. Each of the painters from Kovacica brings something special to this style of painting; each of them has its own distinctive style. The motives of these artists are taken from living and working in rural areas.