On August 10-12, the Turkish Festival will take place in the Krasnaya Presnya Park. Its organizers have prepared a program of educational and entertaining nature. "The festival aims to promote the rapprochement of Turkish and Russian peoples, which have deep roots. Such events make a significant contribution to the development of bilateral relations in all spheres: politics, economy, culture and public communications," Turkish Ambassador to Russia Huseyin Dirioz said.
According to him, the year 2019 was declared a cross-year of culture and tourism: "We regard the Turkish Festival as an event preparing us for the Year of Tourism and Culture. We expect that a large number of Russians will take part in the events to be organized during the cross-year."
"Now the event is a record in its scope and number of participants. Last year, it was visited by 153 thousand people in three days. We expect no less this year. The format of the event that takes place in the Krasnaya Presnya Park is represented, in particular, by decorative buildings, we tried to show the most famous sights of Turkey in the form of sand figures," the festival's general producer Zelimkhan Zarmayev said.
According to him, special attention will be paid to the Turkish cuisine: "Its peculiarity and richness is in the combination of different cultures and peoples that lived on the territory of the Ottoman Empire. For example, the southeastern region of Gaziantep, which we will be represented at the festival, has more than 500 traditional dishes. It is impossible to present all the dishes, but this year we plan to break the record as the most massively presented in Russia Turkish cuisine. We plan to feed at least 150 thousand people with a wide variety of Turkish dishes and at an attractive price, which will be cooked by Turkish chefs brought by us from Turkey."
In order to participate in the festival, 150 artists from Turkey have already arrived in Moscow. "Last year we performed Russian and Turkish songs with my Russian colleagues. And this year you will have as much surprises. For my performance I prepared a program of the most famous Turkish and world classics," mezzo-soprano of the Antalya State Opera and Ballet Serap Ciftci said.
She said that she would devote her performance to the colleagues from the Alexandrov Russian Army Song and Dance Ensemble who died in a plane crash. On December 25, 2016, the Alexandrov ensemble (including the artistic director of the ensemble Lieutenant-General Valery Khalilov, the choreographer and People's Artist of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Ermolin, the main choirmaster and Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Konstantin Mayorov, soloists and honored artists of the Russian Federation Viktor Sanin and Grigory Osipov) was on its way to the Khmeimim Air Base in Syria to congratulate Russian servicemen with the coming New Year.
"As an artist, as a creative person, I believe that only culture, beauty and art can save the world and bring peoples together," Serap Ciftci said.
