Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Wildlife Park, one of the select zoos in Europe, and Ahmed Adnan Saygun Art Center, where the heart of art beats in Izmir, completed 10th year of service. The Park and AAS Art Center personnel cut the cake to celebrate the 10th anniversary. Metropolitan Municipality’s General Secretary Buğra Gökçe attended to the simple ceremony at Izmir Wildlife Park and the Assistant General Secretary Aysel Özkan attended to the ceremony at AAS Art Center. 

Mr. Gökçe noted that the Wildlife Park works very hard so that the animals can be cared for and have a healthy life and added: “The Wildlife Park always sets an example to the other life parks and zoos”. The Metropolitan Municipality’s General Secretary reminded that assuring sustainability of an initiative is a skill that is as important as starting it and continued: “This place means a lot for us. Since its opening, this place has become more and more spectacular and elegant and it has set an example, and we succeed this thanks to the devotion of our personnel and the urbanites.” Buğra Gökçe noted that the Natural Wildlife Park is a key location for tourism and economy in Izmir.

2600 animals from 138 species
Izmir Wildlife Park continues to be a well-known center of attraction in the city with 2600 animals from 138 species living in the park and the number of local and foreign visitors has been regularly increasing year by year. Wishing to take a close look at the animal species they watch on the documentaries, the visitors come to the park whenever they find the time. Izmir Wildlife Park broke a record by reaching the 1-million visitor mark in the first 11 months of 2016 and hosted total 8 million 850 thousand visitors as of the 10th anniversary of its opening. Furthermore, since 2010, the Wildlife Park has treated 862 wild animals and released back into the wild.

Pride of Turkey 
Ahmed Adnan Saygun Art Center (AASSM), one of the key projects of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, has an 1133-person grand hall, 243-person small hall, 5 exhibition halls and a layout suitable for outdoor events; is considered to be one of the best art centers in Turkey with all these features and ARUP, the company that designed Sidney Opera House and London Royal Opera House, implemented the acoustic project of the Art Center.