During the online chat Mayor Tunç Soyer pointed out to unifying, not separator, feature of Mediterranean and said that cultures created permanent bonds.

Mayor Tunç Soyer who answered questions of the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed) Director Lurdes Vidal gave information about the history of Izmir. Mr. Soyer who mentioned importance of Mediterranean in his talk said “All seas emerged during history as obstacles that separate people from each other, needed to be overcome. However, Mediterranean became a sea is just the opposite. It became a unifying sea. Izmir’s 8 thousand 500 year of history involves mingling with Mediterranean ay time. Determination of Ibn Khaldun “Geography is destiny is an accurate determination in this sense for Izmir as well”.

“We need to put forward reasons that bind us to each other more”
Mayor Tunç Soyer who reminded that people of Izmir can learn Spanish, Italian, French and Greek in consideration of low fees at Mediterranean Languages’ Academy opened by Izmir Metropolitan Municipality stated that they aim to approximate cultures in this manner, because cultures create permanent bonds. Mr. Soyer also pointed out importance of democracy in his talk and went on “Today, authoritarian administrations are getting stronger all over the world. The most important move made by authority is to create others, consolidation of power over mine-other. For this, any authoritarian administration follows a strategy that tries to find faults, deficiencies, wrongs of the other. This is a trap. Because there are unifying reasons rather than reasons that separate us from each other, in particular at Mediterranean geography. Living together with differences, strong culture of Mediterranean leads these. We ought to put forward reasons that bind us to each other more.