A delegation from Borlänge Municipality in Dalarna (Sweden) will visit Diyarbakýr and Nusaybin on October 15-21st to hold talks with executives of municipalities and civil society organizations.

Kenneth Persson, Deputy Mayor of Borlänge Municipality under Social Democratic Labour Party stated that the talks with Diyarbakýr and Nusaybin municipal officials will be held to determine and implement joint projects.  

The discussions at the meetings with the delegation, which consists of politicians and officials, will mainly address conditions for doing joint projects in the areas of education, youth, democracy, integration, cultural understanding and equality.

Among the delegation members are names like Member of Environmental Party the Greens, Deputy Mayor Nils Gossas, Left Party Council Group President Leyla Çelik, Center Party Council Group President Sören Hellberg, Members of the City Council, Josef Erdem and Meral Karakaþ. Jan-Olof Lundberg and Marcus Hjelm also take part in the delegation as experts for integration, Per Jerfström for education and Zeineb El-Saneh for international relations.

Around 2000 Kurds live in Borlänge which has a population of 49 thousand. 96 percent of the studying Kurdish students join in mother-tongue education. While Kurdish associations organize different cultural, artistic and social activities to ensure integration, the Kurdish population in the area has obtained a success in many areas including football, with the DalKurd football team which was founded in 2004 and has recently risen to the 1st league showing a great performance.

In October last year, Borlänge City Council decided to create joint projects and to develop friendly relations with Diyarbakýr Municipality