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The Royal Visit 2008

Flags by kind permission of
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Simon Cole, the Council chairman, attended a reception on board HMS Illustrious where he met the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, and President and Mrs Gül. Her Majesty was interested to learn of the work of the BCC. The President thanked the chairman for the work the Council does in fostering British-Turkish friendship. ‘It was a very jolly evening, and the Queen and Prince Phillip were in great form,’ he reports.

When the royal and President’s parties had left he was invited to the wardroom.

An anachronism dating from the original statutes of 1942 means that the Council is obliged to provide hospitality to visiting ships' companies. The chairman spoke with the Mayor of Fatih, who very kindly provided buses, and arranged two tours of sites under restoration in Fatih municipality. On the Friday of their visit, thirty officers and ratings visited Chora Museum, Tekfur Palace, the palace of Blachernae and the dungeons, and the Zeyrek Cistern.

Mustafa Demir, the Mayor, joined the tour at the cistern.  He welcomed the visitors to Byzantium, Constantinople, now Istanbul. He told the party about some of the difficulties of caring for so many monuments of such great importance.

The Saturday tour was extended to include the church which is reputed to be the location of the Turin Shroud during its missing period, and the Orthodox Patriarchate. His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew joined the group at this stage and said how delighted he was that Her Majesty had had such a successful and enjoyable visit to Turkey.