ANKARA: Edirne might be home to the world’s second busiest border gate, but the northwestern Turkish city feels it does not see a fair share of the benefits of cross-border trade activities, according to the local mayor. “As people who are carrying the burden of living on the border, we would like to see more benefits,” said Mayor Recep Gürkan. Tell us what it means for Edirne to be a city on the border.
We are the border between Turkey and Europe – the European Union. We are 3 kilometers from Greece and 17 kilometers from Bulgaria. This has positive as well as negative effects. Kapıkule is the world’s second biggest land border gate after the U.S.-Mexican border [between San Diego and Tijuana]. Some 2.5 million cars cross each year. You hear news about the long queues of trucks at Kapıkule. People spend three or four days in those queues and they have all sorts of needs. Sometimes when Bulgaria slows down the procedures at customs, that wait gets even longer; we end up paying the bill for that. Edirne pays the cost of any disagreement between countries. And obviously we do not want to appear in the press with this negative news.
Another difficulty is that when there is a problem with Greece for instance, everyone turns to look at Edirne. But we are a city of peace. We are used to respecting each other and are familiar with multiculturalism. We have been used to having several different faiths living with each other since Ottoman times. Twenty percent of Edirne’s population comes from different parts of Turkey, and yet we have no ghettos in the city. That’s also why we have excellent relations with our Greek and Bulgarian neighbors. Spend a weekend in Edirne and you will see that half of the population in the border region of Greece and Bulgaria is in Edirne and half of Edirne is in Greece and Bulgaria.
