Turkish Pazar Festival
Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (13:24): On Sunday of last week I had the pleasure of attending the annual Turkish Pazar Festival held at Queen Victoria Market. I want to begin by acknowledging some of the amazing work done by the Moreland Turkish Association in hosting the festival every year, and I want to particularly recognise the efforts of the Moreland Turkish Association president Mr Cemal Akdeniz OAM. I want to acknowledge Mr Jemal Hasan, the president of MUSIAD Melbourne; Mr Veysel Kurtoglu, the vice-president of the Turan Australia Association; and Mr Ismail Metin from the Yunus Emre Centre for Culture and Education, all of whom I had the chance to meet at the event. In its 16th year, the Turkish Pazar Festival once again attracted thousands of Melburnians from across the community, particularly from Melbourne’s north, who throughout the day were treated to a whole bunch of musical entertainment, performances, dance troupes and most memorably some great Turkish food. I had the chance to chat with Kazim Ates about his autobiography Paper Planes. I want to particularly acknowledge and personally thank Mr Onur Ayyildiz from Fire and Rescue NSW, who was deployed on the recent mission to Türkiye. It was great to thank him for that. I thank all the organisers, community leaders and stallholders for their great hospitality, and I look forward to joining them again next year.