Based on the domestic goods exhibition organized during the Izmir Economic Congress and the 9 September Exhibitions held between 1927-28 and 1933-35, the then Mayor of Izmir, Dr. Behçet Uz, brought up the idea of establishing a fair to support the economic development of the city. During the maturation phase of the idea, Suat Yurtkoru, the Deputy Mayor of İzmir at the time, mentioned the Kültürpark in Moscow, which he had visited in 1933, and it was agreed to develop a project combining the Fair and Kültürpark.
After the Great Fire of Izmir, the reconstruction of the area in the city center, which had remained idle after the Great Fire of Izmir and was popularly known as the fire station, was among the most important issues of the period. Despite many opposing opinions, it was decided to establish Kültürpark and Fuar in this area thanks to Behçet Uz. Founded on January 1, 1936, the construction of Kültürpark and the Fair was completed the same year and opened on September 1, 1936 by İsmet İnönü, the Prime Minister of the time. In the following years, many cultural, art, sports and entertainment facilities were added to Kültürpark, a botanical garden was created by planting trees brought from different parts of Turkey and the world, and international trade fairs were organized every year in the first week of September.
Kültürpark is one of the most important modernization projects of the Republic. Behçet Uz expressed this most succinctly as follows;
“Kültürpark, with its various playgrounds for big and small children, with its summer and winter swimming pools, with its parachute tower for jumping from an airplane, with its amphitheater to be used for any manifestation or representation or conferences, with its Aegean Products Museum that will teach the products of the Aegean to its visitors in the best way, will help our population increase, With the Health Museum, which will be of great help in keeping our people in better health and will clearly teach our people how to avoid infectious diseases and the evils of abortion, and with the Atatürk Revolution Museum, which will be prepared to be more meaningful and superior than all of these, we will have a most attractive place where everyone will run and go...”
The fact that an international trade fair is organized regularly every year in Kültürpark is an indication of the vision to make İzmir one of the most important trade centers of its geography in the 20th century, as it was in previous centuries. This vision has taken its place in history as one of the most successful examples of the city's efforts to adapt to the conditions of the period with the opportunities and capabilities fed by its history.
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