Antalya: Children from all over the world have started to gather in Antalya Mediterranean province of Turkey to attend a children's festival.

Numerous children from 38 countries including India will attend the April 23rd International Children's Festival to be held by the state-run Turkish Radio Television Corporation (TRT).

The festival will be held for the 30th time this year. The festival will start in Antalya on April 17th with the marching of nearly 1,600 children, 800 of whom are foreigners.

On April 21st, one guest from each participant country will travel to the Turkish capital, Ankara and will be received by President Abdullah Gul, Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan, Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Director General of TRT Ibrahim Sahin.

Guest children will perform their traditional folk dances in Aspendos Ancient Theatre of Antalya on April 23rd. They will return to their home countries on April 25th.

This year's festival will host guests from Germany, USA, Albania, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, China, Morocco, Palestine, Georgia, Croatia, India, Iraq, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo, TRNC, Lithuania, Hungary, Macedonia, Mexico, Egypt, Moldova, Nigeria, Romania, Russia, Sene gal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sudan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Venezuela.

"April 23rd Children's Festival" is a festival that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, bestowed to Turkish children and that has been celebrated internationally since 1979.
Source : PTI