Parasailing with flyboard in Van Lake was breathtaking
The 'Van Sea Water Sports Festival', which was held for the 11th time this year in order to promote Lake Van, the world's largest soda lake, and to bring it into tourism, was the scene of colorful scenes. Citizens flocked to the festival area from the early hours of the morning to watch the events organized in cooperation with Edremit Municipality and Provincial Directorate of Youth and Sports at the Edremit-Gebze Water Sports Center on the shore of Lake Van. Many athletes demonstrated on the first day of the event, which will take place over 2 days. In the festival where rafting, rowing, canoe races, beach volleyball and handball were played, flyboard and parasailing shows were breathtaking.
Governor and Deputy Mayor of the Metropolitan Municipality Ozan Balcı, Provincial Gendarmerie Commander Brigadier General Hüseyin Bekmez, Police Chief Atanur Aydın, Edremit District Governor Yücel Erdem, Edremit Mayor İsmail Say, Tusba Mayor Salih Akman, corporate supervisors and many athletes attended the event.
Speaking at the event, Van Governor and Deputy Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ozan Balcı thanked the Edremit Municipality officials who contributed to the organization of the event. Stating that Lake Van is not just a lake, but a cultural asset of Turkey, Governor Balcı said, “We are doing our best to protect Lake Van. A deep mud cleaning carried out by our Metropolitan Municipality with the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change continues intensively. We spent about 100 million TL for this cleaning work and it will continue. The construction of treatment plants continues in 3 districts and we will build 3 more.”
Edremit Mayor İsmail Say, who stated that the event was full of colorful activities, said, “It was an opening worthy of Edremit. As you can see in the field right now, children, women, adults, everyone is here. Our citizens are enjoying the weekend in Lake Van. Our sports festival, which we have organized for the 11th time, continues today. Nearly 500 of our athletes will compete here and there will be various prizes. With this festival, we say that sports is fraternity, coming together and meeting of cultures. Thousands of our citizens from all over the region are our guests here this weekend. In recent years, we have highlighted our Edremit with its sports, tourism, culture and art."