Kocaoğlu bid farewell

The opening ceremony also meant the farewell moment for Aziz Kocaoğlu, who had been the host of MARBLE as the mayor of the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality. Finishing his words saying, “Give me your blessings”, Kocaoğlu said, “We’ve shown the world how a fair should be organized. Today this festival of natural stone is celebrated in Izmir. This is the number one marble fair of the world.” Kocaoğlu also objected to the opinions about the privatization of the fair by saying, “Fairs and conventions belong to the city. They are values of the city. It’s not right to privatize them.”4