Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director for EU Affairs Ambassador Faruk Kaymakcı Will Attend the Start Ceremony of the Turkish Phase of the 14th Europa-Orient / East-West Friendship and Peace Rally

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director for EU Affairs Ambassador Faruk Kaymakcı will attend the Start Ceremony for the Turkish Phase of the 14th Europa-Orient / East-West Friendship and Peace Rally that will held in Sultanahmet Square (Istanbul) at 14.30 on Friday, 17 May 2019.

The Start Ceremony for the Turkish phase of the rally will be held with the participation of Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director for EU Affairs Ambassador Faruk Kaymakcı, Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya, the president of the Europa-Orient Rallye Wilfried Gehr, the president of the East-West Friendship and Peace Rally Nadir Serin and more than 150 amateur rally racers from various European and other countries.

The rally will also continue to Samsun on 19 May, which is the centennial of the day Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of our Republic, arrived in Samsun. Furthermore, the rally racers will stay in Göbeklitepe, which is on UNESCO World Heritage list, on the declaration of the 2019 as the Göbeklitepe Year by our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and will contribute to the publicity of Göbeklitepe. The race cars will later be donated to charity organisations in Türkiye and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director for EU Affairs Ambassador Faruk Kaymakcı indicated that the rally racers, hosted with Turkish hospitality in all provinces along the route, will become voluntary ambassadors for Türkiye once they return to their countries.  Deputy Minister Kaymakcı said that he was pleased to celebrate Europe Day with the rally participants in Istanbul, a bridge between the West and the East, and that he felt enthusiastic about participating in the rally from Istanbul to Samsun as a rally racer.

Brief Information on the Europa-Orient / East-West Friendship and Peace Rally

The Europa-Orient / East-West Friendship and Peace Rally has been supported by the Directorate for EU Affairs since 2011 as a part of the activities held for 9 May Europe Day in the framework of the European Union Communication Strategy (EUCS). The Europa-Orient / East-West Friendship and Peace Rally is an adventure rather than a race and old cars which are worth less than 1,100 euro participate in the rally. This year, the rally, in which 85 cars and more than 150 racers participated, started on 11 May 2019 from the Heilbronn, Germany. The rally will travel through Türkiye from 15 May to 29 May 2019 and will end on 1 June in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Route of the Europa-Orient and East-West Friendship and Peace Rally

14 May 2019 Arrival in Türkiye

14-17 May 2019 İstanbul

17-18 May 2019 Zonguldak-Karadeniz Ereğlisi

18-19 May 2019 Ankara

19 May 2019 Samsun

20-21 May 2019 Georgia/Batumi

21 May 2019 Kars

22 May Iran/Tabriz

23-24 May Iran/Astara-Hazar Sea

24-25 May Iran/Urimiye

25 May Van

26-27 May Şanlıurfa-Göbeklitepe

28 May Gaziantep-Mersin- Arrival in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus by ferry 

29-30-31 May Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

1 Haziran Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus - end of the rally  

Respectfully announced to the press members and public.