Celebrating the past – creating the future in Erzurum

This was the welcome message extended to the FISU Secretary General/CEO, together with his Chief Sports Officer and Director of Winter Universiade, by their Turkish friends from the University Sports Federation of Türkiye (TUSF) during their visit to Erzurum.

The meeting was attended by Aydın Baruş – Governor of Erzurum, Mehmet Sekmen – Mayor of Erzurum Metropolitan Municipality, Prof. Dr. Ahmet Hacımüftüoğlu, Rector of Atatürk University, Prof. Dr. Bülent Çakmak – Rector of Erzurum Technical University, Levent Çakmur – Provincial Director of Youth and Sports of Erzurum, and Ayşegül Hamleci from the General Directorate of Sports Services.

As is well known, our Turkish friends successfully hosted the Winter Universiade in 2011. Since then, this winter sports city has developed impressively. As Mayor Mehmet Sekmen emphasised, our Winter Universiade provided the necessary impetus for the city’s development. This included the renovation of historic sites, the further development of ski resorts, and the construction of additional ice rinks, football pitches and swimming pools.

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Today, Erzurum is used all year-round by sports organisations as a high-altitude training destination. Atatürk University, led by Prof. Dr. Ahmet Hacımüftüoğlu, is now the largest university in Turkey, and Erzurum Technical University, headed by Prof. Dr. Bülent Çakmak, has also been established. In short: it is impressive to see how Erzurum has developed.

At the forefront of development

We are proud that FISU and world university sports were able to be at the forefront of this development, which has also had to weather setbacks such as earthquakes and severe storms accompanied by major landslides. Erzurum now intends to bid once again to host the Winter Universiade and will submit a bid very soon.

Intending to submit a bid dossier

Governor Aydın Baruş has also confirmed his intention to submit the bid dossier in collaboration with the city, the University Sports Federation of Türkiye (TUSF), Levent Çakmur – Provincial Director of Youth and Sports of Erzurum, and Ayşegül Hamleci from the General Directorate of Sports Services.

For this reason, the FISU directors have visited all the planned facilities, with the aim of enabling FISU Executive Committee to make its decision as soon as possible.

The excellent facilities in Erzurum would make it possible to host both traditional and new sports, opening up opportunities to test attractive new competition formats.