İzmit to feature Turkey’s largest center for women

KOCAELI - Anatolia News Agency

The center will be established in the Cephanelik neighborhood of İzmit on an area of 4 hectares. AA photo

Turkey’s largest social center for women will be established in the northwestern province of Kocaeli on an area of 4 hectares.

“The center will include everything,” İzmit Mayor Nevzat Doğan recently told Anatolia news agency. “We will establish the best one in Turkey; it will be the most comprehensive center for women.”

The center will include facilities where women can play sports and carry out social activities.

The plans for the Women Social Life and Business Development Center have been completed and the center will be very different from others in Turkey, Doğan said.

Doğan said the center would be established in the Cephanelik neighborhood of İzmit on an area of 4 hectares and would feature pools, baths, saunas, massage halls and a solarium, beauty center and sports center.

He said women would be able to take courses on cooking, jewelry design, foreign languages, fashion design, wood painting, glass painting, sewing, painting, music, sculpture and ceramics.

Most comprehensive among similar projects
“There are other similar projects in Turkey and Europe. But I am very assertive that ours is more comprehensive than all these others and more women will make use of this center. We will establish all living areas that women need in this center,” Doğan said.

He said the construction of the center would start in March. “We plan to finish the center by the end of the year. We hope that at least 500,000 women will make use of this place annually. It will serve 6,500 women at the same time. For example, 200 women can take language, music, folk dance and handcraft lessons. Or maybe 200 women will want to hold a conference, so they will come to the conference room of the center. We will provide them opportunities for all types of activities from reading books to riding horses.”

Doğan said being a woman would be the only condition to benefit from the center. He said Turks attached great importance to women because of the country’s culture and religion.

“We always treat women with great respect,” Doğan said. “In the Ottoman era, women were very effective; they sometimes ruled the country. But today, unfortunately, some distorted minds use violence against women. This project may be a symbol to show how Turkish people esteem women.”