Dear SCIJ Members,
I know that you are wondering why the invitation letter for the 59th SCIJ Meeting is delayed. It is delayed because we had to wait for some simple issues to be solved and we apologize for that.
We believe this year’s gathering will provide a great opportunity for our guests from all around the world to see İstanbul, European capital of culture in 2010 and Erzurum, one of the oldest settlement centers of Anatolia and to feel the ancient times.
We are very much excited and eager to host you both in İstanbul and Erzurum’s ski resorts which has some of the finest winter sports facilities in Turkey and a promising place for those like to discover. It is also a city characterized by cultural and historical relics.
We have to change the programme that we have presented you in Canada last year after the inspection visit of the International Ccmmitee (IC) to Turkey in June. Dear Miguel and Roberto liked Erzurum very much and wanted SCIJ members stay all the week in this city during the meeting. They expressed that they do not know the city, they want to explore it. The main objective here is to find new ski destinations.
Dear Members,
It is our great pleasure and honor to invite you and your delegation to the “2012 Erzurum” which is to be held in Erzurum from February 25th to March 3rd, 2012.
It is a tradition to organize SCIJ meetings from Saturday to Saturday every year. “2012 Erzurum” will start on Saturday too. You will arrive at İstanbul Ataturk Airport on March 25th and will be transferred to the hotel immediately. For those who make their check ins at the hotel early in the day, a Turkish bath will be waiting for them to forget the long journey, to feel light and to relax. It is one of the great options of the day. The other options are: either you can have a walk from the hotel which is at the city center or go to the Grand Bazaar with a guide. We hope a good dinner at the famous Flower Passage, originally called Cite de Pera will make you much happier. We won’t be travelling to Erzurum the next day because it is the last day of a ski race which is organised by our partner Turkey Ski Federation in Erzurum. Instead on Sunday we will depart from the hotel for a brunch on boat at the Bosphorous. And this will be followed with a sight-seeing tour in the afternoon including Hagia Sophia Museum, Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace. A dinner will be given at a historical cistern with a great music in the last day in Istanbul.
We will travel to Erzurum by plane on Monday morning. Erzurum is the biggest city of the eastern province of Turkey, situated at an altitude of about 2000 metres over the sea level. Complemented with the distance to the sea, this makes the climate of this area the harshest in Turkey with the temperatures in long, heavily snowy, and bitterly cold winter regularly below -30°C at nights (and no warmer than -15°C during the day). We would like to remind you that Erzurum was the host city for UNIVERSIADE last year. New slopes and facilities at Palandoken Mountain are waiting for you to discover and enjoy there. The IC has chosen Konakli slopes for the giant slalom. The place is only 40 kilometers from the hotel. If you remember I promised you that our programme will not be tiring as in Calgary. Our Canadian friends worked very hard to welcome us and we appreciate that. As there are many ski slopes in the other cities which are not far from Erzurum, we do not want you to waste your time on roads. But we recommend you to attend pre and post tours to see and discover the other ski resorts in Turkey.
Finally we kindly ask you to take note of “2012 Erzurum”” on your agenda. The programme and the other necessary information for the event will be sent to you soon.
We sincerely look forward to your distinguished presence at this event.
Sincerely Yours,
Ms. Yazgulu Aldogan
