Painting Exhibition of Türkan Elçi in Armada

As 2006’s final and 2007’s first exhibition, ARMADA will be hosting Mrs. Türkan Elçi, whose painting “Saint Sophia” has won the third prize in “2006 International Fine Arts Contest” in Spain. The paintings displayed at this exhibition are mainly sceneries of the “historical peninsula” of Istanbul.

Award-Winning “Saint Sophia”

The contest that Türkan Elçi has participated is the sole example in the world in its category and has been organized by the cultural association “Valentin Ruiz Aznar” in Granada, Spain, which takes place annually since 1981. There were participants from more than 40 countries from 5 continents . The contest of 2006 has been dedicated to “Antonio Gualda” who is a painter, writer and composer from Granada.

Türkan Elçi who was graduated from Aegean University Agriculture Faculty, worked at Ünal Cimit’s ceramic studio between the years of 1994-1999 and has been working since 2001 at the painting studio of the Assistant Professor Sedat Balkır in the Association of Painting and Sculpture Museums in Istanbul .

In this exhibition in Armada, the artist shares with us her 22 paintings of Istanbul, which are abstract works of interior and exterior spaces mainly on Chora Museum and Saint Sophia Museum.

We would like to invite all art-lovers to this wonderful exhibition at the Armada Lobby!

Eleni Karaindrou, the Guest of Honour of the Armada Hotel

The Greek composer Eleni Karaindrou who gave a fabulous concert together with the Hacettepe University Symphony Orchestra (Ankara, Turkey) and 5 soloists from Greece the previous night at the Lutfu Kırdar Congress Hall, was the guest of honour of the Armada Hotel during her stay in Istanbul. The renowned musician who made the most important films of the world unforgettable through her compositions, came to Turkey upon the invitation of 5th Pera Fest “Encounter of North-South Musicians for Peace". Here is the news story on her magnificent Istanbul and Ankara concerts by Beril Aktaş from Turkish Daily News...

Here is what she wrote in the Honour Book of Armada:


Dear Mr. Kasım,

In the name of my musicians and myself, I thank you very much to you and your gentle crew for the excellent hospitality that was shown to us in such a beautiful hotel like this...

It is not so easy to forget this magnificent stay!
We will come back soon!
With love,
Eleni Karaindrou,
4 December 2006

2007 New Year's Party at the Armada Hotel

The Armada Hotel is preparing to celebrate 2007 New Year's Party with a rich program. Among the features that differs Armada's party from the similar ones are the Roman groups from Ahırkapı and Trace, oriental belly dancers from all over the world and the celebration the 2007 with fireworks and champagne at the Terrace towards the historical peninsula at just 24:00 hrs...


Program:
20:00- 21:00 - New Year’s Cocktail at the Lobby
21:00 – 23:50 - New Year’s Gala Dinner at the Ahirkapi Restaurant
Menü: Cold and hot Armada Mezes. Main Course: Stuffed Turkey with orange Sauce served with rice and Ahirkapi Salad. Unlimited Local Alcoholic Beverages
24:00 - Welcoming the New Year at the Armada Terrace; with fireworks and champagne…
After the midnight: At the Lobby "Dessert & Fruit Buffet"; “Supper”: Delicious night soups from Armada “Pottage Carriage”, Coffee and Tea.
A rich breakfast will also be served to the guests who will prefer to stay at the hotel same night. The breakfast service will go on from morning until noon of the first day of 2007!

Istanbul Tango Ritual- 8th-12th November

Tango lovers from all over the world are meeting in "Istanbul Tango Ritual" between 8th-12th of November 2006.
Being one of the essential Tango supporters in Istanbul, Armada is the venue of most of the activities of this event...
The Maestros:
Fabian Salas and Carolina del Rivero
Esteban Moreno and Claudia Codega
Ezequiel Paludi and Geraldine Paludi
Pablo Tegli and Victoria Vieyra
Christian Marquez and Virginia Gomez
and the orchestra: Otros Aires

For the details: Click on the picture

The 83rd Republic Day will be celebrated with a traditional Ball at the Armada on October 29th, 2006.

The Ball will begin with a coctail party at the Lobby which will start at 20:00 and finish at 20:30. Then the guests will have Gala Dinner at the Ahirkapi Restaurant . Live music by the Ozdener Koyuturk Orchestra and Tango will be the main features of the night. Join us and share our joy...



PROGRAM

• 20:00-21:00 Welcome Coctail (at the Lobby)
• 21:00-24:00 Gala Dinner and Dance (Özdener KOYUTÜRK Tango Orchestra)

MENU

• White-cheese, Melon, "Circassian chicken", Russian Salad
• Cream of chicken
• Crepe with vegetables
• Salad "Mimosa"
• Ice Cream 'Cassata'
• Domestic Drinks

Price: 50 YTL/pp (Including VAT)

---

For reservation: ARMADA Sales Team
Phone: 0212 - 455 44 55
E-Mail: infosatis@armadahotel.com.tr
Sultan Sebilcioğlu (0 212 455 44 71)
Bülent Tağcı (0 212 455 44 72)
Zerrin Kelebek (0 212 455 44 70)

Some Shots from the Sipahioglu Exhibition Tour, İstanbul Modern Museum

Photographs: With the courtesy of Farnood, the Photographer, joined the tour from Iran

Armada celebrates the first Nobel prize that came to Turkey!

The City and the World

We live in an age of mass media, mass movement, and globalization when it is likely that we will confront different cultures and different races as we go about our daily business. But Turkey has always had to deal with the problems and pleasures of diversity, as it straddles the place where Asia and Europe meet.
The best-selling Turkish novelist, Orhan Pamuk, has devoted his life to the study of mixture and plurality, and what is often called "the clash of cultures." By concentrating on a specific country, and even narrowing his focus to one city – the teeming, chaotic city of Istanbul, caught between its desire for the west and its admiration for the east – Pamuk finds a way to talk about all kinds of identities. Individuals, nations, cultures, periods, even literary styles and genres, start to leak, multiply, change and slip. In White Castle, for example, an Italian slave finds he has a double in an Ottoman pasha: the two look alike and share a burning interest in science, but the Italian decides to stay in Turkey, while the Turk becomes disillusioned with his native country and moves to Italy. In My Name is Red, sixteenth-century Istanbul slips into modern Istanbul, fiction becomes confused with reality, and what we thought was a philosophical novel about the place of art in our lives, slips into a detective story and a love story...

For the rest of the article by Georgia Brown on the Nobel Prize website, please click here
For the telephone interview with Orhan Pamuk click here
For Orhan Pamuk's web site click here.

33 French journalists travel to Turkey in order to visit the exhibition by Gökşin Sipahioğlu

Doğan Hızlan, columnist of Hurrriyet, comments on the news as follows:

"33 journalists are coming to Turkey to visit the exhibition that was held in Istanbul Modern: “The Right Time The Right Place” by well-known photographer Gökşin Sipahioğlu, the founder of the LEGENDARY photograph agency.

The journalists, who will stay at the Armada Hotel in Sultanahmet, will visit the Grand Bazaar, Tahtakale, and Egyptian Bazaar in the morning. Then they will go to İstanbul Modern and visit the Exhibition.

After the exhibition, there will be a luncheon at Istanbul Modern. Among the participants of this event are the Ambassador of France, Yaşar Kemal, Ara Güler and other close friends of Gökşin Sipahioğlu and some journalists and writers from Turkey.

In line with the program that was prepared by Aydın Sezgin, the Consul Generale of Turkey in Paris, the guests will also visit the “Harem” section of the Topkapı Palace. -Well-known history Professor and the Director of the museum- İlber Ortaylı will guide the museum tour.
* * *
Two of the French journalists are coming from Bayreuth while others are coming directly from France.
İstanbul Modern will host the guests in Turkey. With three hours of Bosphorus tour, the journalists will get to know the beauties of the Bosphorus. In addition, they will visit the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia.

When you have a glance at the guest list, you will see that they are the most renowned personalities, editors, and writers, particularly of the photography world. Among the foreign guests are the Turkish photo managers who are well known abroad.

Is there any need to emphasize the importance of these kinds of visits?

I think that this hosting is an impressive one for a few reasons. Firstly, they will see the photographs of Gökşin Sipahioğlu within a museum that is in his own country. In the meantime, they also will see some of the efforts Turkey is putting into the field of art. Secondly, when they become friends with the persons who they met here and by seeing Turkey, I think their thoughts contrary to Turkey will change.

* * *
I would like to learn their thoughts before they come here and after they return to their country.
- - - - - - - - - - - -

We would like to thank to our dear friends SİPAHİOĞLU and Ayperi Ecer KARABUDA (Reuters) for choosing Armada to stay during such an important event.
Hoping the wishes of Doğan Hızlan will come true!
ARMADA

The Armada Terrace, Summer 2006

The Armada Terrace has enriched its predominantly Istanbul Cuisine menu with a variety of seafood for the summer, and has also prepared a special “wine menu” for both connoisseurs and those who are simply interested. As for the Raki lovers, their pleasure will be increased by the expanded “Raki List” and the traditional “Armada Meze”s....



Armada’s new “Wine Menu” includes both the well known and the ‘ambitious’ brands, as well as lesser-known wines from regional producers with ‘original’ products. The menu has been developed so as to appeal to all those who enjoy drinking wine, with more detailed information about the types of grapes and their flavor and aroma for those who take a particular interest, and offers as well the opportunity to savor special wines made from grapes from different regions by small local producers. Alongside the enhanced wine selection, the Armada has enriched its traditional Istanbul Cuisine with the addition of a number of seafood dishes, such as Monkfish Sauté, Seafood and Lagos Şiş Kebab, Sea bass baked on terra cotta tile and Aegean-style Grilled Octopus. And along with the increased selection of dishes, a new and expanded “Raki List” enhances the Terrace’s indispensable assortment of accompanying hot and cold “Çilingir Tepsisi” appetizers and the shared “Armada Mezeleri” for which it is justly famed.

ARMADA, The only Istanbul hotel among Turkey’s “Top 10 Hotels in Concept of Service”…

For the past several years Hürriyet Newspaper, one of Turkey's most popular dailies, has requested leaders in the hotel, restaurant and tourism sectors and specialists in the field to evaluate the various surveys of providers in the hospitality field and choose their "top 10s" in order to inform their readers. Sabahattin the Fisherman and Giritli Istanbul have frequently appeared among the "top 10" restaurants…In last week's Seyahat (Travel) section of Hürriyet, the list of the top ten hotels distinguished by their outstanding concept of service was published. Selected from among hotels throughout Turkey by a jury composed of Ahmet Barut, President of the Turkish Federation of Hoteliers (TÜROFED), Başa Ulusoy, President of the Turkish Association of Travel Agents (TÜRSAB), Şerif Yenen, President of the Association of Tourist Guides (TUREB), Halil Özyurt, President of the Bodrum Hotel and Tourism Operators Association (BODER), Oktay Varlıer, President of the Turkish Tourism Investment Association (TYD) and travel correspondent Mehmet Yaşin, the Armada Hotel was the only Istanbul hotel to be awarded this status.

As you already know, the special ingredient that differentiates the Armada Hotel's service concept from that of other hotels is our continuous striving to "offer the subtleties and refinements of Istanbul life to our local and foreign guests." This mission forms the basis of our corporate culture and administrative philosophy, and the realization of its success is a triumph for the 'Armada Team' who wholeheartedly embrace it, most of whom have been with us since 1994. At least as important a contribution to its success has been made by you, the Armada friends and Armada guests who have understood this message and supported it…We take this opportunity to offer our deepest thanks to you and to our team…

Summer is the best time for the "Armada Terrace"...
And nowadays the Terrace witnesses a "wedding season" because of the couples who desire to celebrate their future wedding anniversaries in the same place...

Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomeos signs his new book at the Armada

Dimitrios Arhondonis took the name Bartholomeos after graduating from the Heybeliada Seminary on the Princes’ Islands in Istanbul and becoming Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church. Yesterday his new book, in Turkish, "Bir Patrik Çocukken (When a Patriarch was a Child), was launched at a ceremony at the Armada Hotel, where the Patriarch signed copies for his readers. Published by the Bizim Deniz Publishing company, translated into Turkish by Ari Çokona and edited by Editor-in-Chief Celal Başlangiç, the book is a collection of essays written during the Patriarch’s primary and secondary school years. In his preface to the book, Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Hatemi stresses that Patriarch Bartholomeos is not only a warm-hearted spiritual leader, but also a dedicated environmentalist, adding his heartfelt wishes that the Patriarch will write his memoirs in the near future…

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!
Armada celebrates all fathers and those who love them around the world...

We prepared a "Father's Day Brunch" for the Sunday morning, June 18th:
Feta Cheese (Turkish "white cheese") - "Kaşar" Cheese- Turkish "Tulum" cheese- Butter- Cream- Green Olive- Black Olive- Tomato- Cucumber- Strawberry Jam - Apricot Jam- Orange Jam - Honey varietes- Yoghurt- Fresh Fruit Salad- Raisin- Sultana (Fig)- Dried apricot- Oat Meal- Fried Eggs- Omlette- Turkish pastries: "Acma" - "Poğaça"- Pastry with cheese- Provensial Bread- Rye Bread- "Baklava" with Sour-Cherry- Fruit Basket- "Pestil" (Fruit pulp sheets dried under direct sunlights and folded)- Tea / Coffeee / Milk- Fruit juice... Price is 25 YTL./pp.

For reservation please call or e-mail to "Armada Sales Team":
Tel: 0212 - 455 44 55
E-posta: infosatis@armadahotel.com.tr
Zerrin Kelebek (0 212 455 44 70) - Nilüfer Yünlü (0 212 455 44 71) - Bülent Tağcı (0 212 455 44 72)

Armada Hosts The Glass Art Exhibiton

The exhibition by Özen Bozdağ, Dilek Ustabaş and Zerrin Ekinci, the art students of painter Ekrem Özen workshop, will be held at the Armada lobby and open to visit as of May 22th till June 2nd.

Özen Bozdağ who is an English language teacher in Beşiktaş Atatürk Anatolian Highschool is taking part in the exhibition with her 14 works. She has been keeping her art life going in the Ekrem Ozen workshop for the last three years in the form of abstract masques and portaits with stained glass, mosaic glass and hot casting techniques. Dilek Ustabaş has been performing stained and mosaic glass works in the same workshop for one and half year and is participating with a large scale work. Zerrin Ekinci is a psychologist and has been working on stained glass for one and half year as well. Ekinci's 6 works will be exhibited in total.

We wish you see there!

Opening: May 22th, 2006, Monday, at 18:00 hrs.
Venue: Armada Lobby

The Third Eye by Özen Bozdağ

Abstract Mask-1 and Abstract Mask-2, by Özen Bozdağ

Mothers Day At The Armada Terrace

Mother's Day will be celebrated at the Armada Terrace with rich breakfast (brunch) that is consisting of natural foods as well as samples from traditional Istanbul kitchen, on may 14th, Sunday as of 10:30. After the celebration the mothers will be invited to be taken a Mother's Day photograph together with their children in front of a specially designed poster and they will keep the prints as a give-away of the Armada Hotel.

The poster was designed by Gurel Yontan who also is the interior architect of the Armada Hotel and adjacent facilities...

(The price is 35 YTL/pp)

For detailed info & reservation: ARMADA Sales Team
Tel: 0212 - 455 44 55
E-posta: infosatis@armadahotel.com.tr
Nilüfer Yünlü (0 212 455 44 71)
Bülent Tağcı (0 212 455 44 72)
Zerrin Kelebek (0 212 455 44 70)

First Istanbul Milonga Workshop Of 2006 Starts With The Gala Show By Julio Balmaceda & Corina De La Rosa

The first Milonga workshop of 2006 which will be as of May 1st, 2006 to May 3rd, 2006, starts at the Armada Hotel tonight with the Gala Show by Julio & Corina. The program will begin as of 22:30 hrs. at the Ahırkapı Restaurant's dance-floor where the rest of the Workshop and classes will be held...

They are the internationally well known Master Teachers and Dancers. Julio is the son of the legendary Miguel Balmaceda. Together they transmit precision and beauty on all of their movements. They took part in the Forever Tango show touring the U.S.A and Europe. At present, they are the solo couple of Color Tango Orchestra(*).

Julio and Corina have a special blend of Traditional and New Tango styles, which makes their dancing unique and very rich in emotion. Classes with them are recommended to all dancers, from beginners to advance, taking up on New Tango elements with a twist of traditional flavor.

The couple gained popularity and are very much appreciated by their pupils because of the individual attention they give during their classes, which they have very successfully been teaching for several years in Buenos Aires in Nino Bien or in the Galeria del Tango. As frequently invited guest-teachers and celebrated showdancers they express at the tango-festivals in the USA, in Europe and Japan their own sentimental interpretation of the dance, always with respectful attention for musicality and rythm. The Tango Vals and the Tango Salon are considered their speciality. Even if you never saw them before, you will recognise a fine quality of elegance in their scenes in the shows for sure.

For detailed information: Serdar Sungar - (0532) 664 88 36- http://www.tangoturk.com/
(*) Source: http://www.julioycorina.com.ar/main.html

Join Us At Traditional Spring Festival: Hidrellez 2006

The Hıdrellez at Ahırkapı activities which was first started by Armada 7 years ago and now owned by the civil community and the municipalty begin on Ahirkapi Street and spread to the adjacent streets. All the traditional spring foods and drinks -both the traditional ones and the brewery- are sold through the street-buffets, while the local musicians perform roman and Balkan music. The Ahirkapi Great Roman Orchestra which is consisting of the neighboring musician groups of Ahirkapi community performs street concerts along with the guest performers... Küçük Hasan from Lüleburgaz a zurna genius and the drum master Tamer Kum and his group come every year. This year on May 5th, Friday, the seventh festival will be celebrated.

Join us!

For the details of the Program and access to the venue please click on the Festival's poster above!

Read what Nahıl is in detail here!

April 29th: World Dance Day

- We celebrate the International Dance Day and send our warm regards to Tango-lovers who dances on each Sunday and Monday night at the Ahirkapı dance-floor of the Armada Hotel for the last twelve years!-

2006 International Dance Day Message

By His Majesty Preah Bat Samdech Preah Boromneath Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia

(Collage: Luca di Paolo )

Dancing requires neither pen nor paintbrush.
Only one instrument is necessary, the human body.
Every motion is imbued with dance. To move is to dance.

Dance exacts the utmost dedication of body, mind, and soul. Only the truly committed can pursue this demanding path. Such ascetic discipline molds the character as well as the body, and the rewards of such devotion are a hundred-fold. No freedom can approach that obtained by the mastery of the spirit over the body.

To us Khmers, dance in its most elaborate form is a means to draw us closer to the gods. Thus, dance becomes prayer. It becomes an indispensable ritual for the world to move forward, transcending us to the divine and
raising us to supernatural heights.

On International Dance Day, may the dancers of the Royal Ballet of Cambodia intercede for us all. As we dance, may we strengthen everywhere the noble practice of tolerance, so crucial to all of humanity in this year of 2006.

Source: http://www.iti-worldwide.org/pages/idd/idd.htm

http://www.iti-worldwide.org/docs/public/06iddmessage.pdf

The 25th Istanbul International Film Festival Starts...

Organised by the İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IFCA) under the sponsorship of AKBANK, the International İstanbul Film Festival is celebrating its 25^th year in 2006.

The 25^th International İstanbul Film Festival, made possible through the generous support of Festival Sponsor AKBANK, will run 1-16 April 2006. Bringing İstanbul film enthusiasts a choice array of outstanding films, special screenings, celebrity actors and accomplished directors, the İstanbul Film Festival this year presents a host of special events to mark its 25^th anniversary year.

The Festival is sure to have film enthusiasts flocking back to cinema screens in April with a programme of more than 200 films from 42 countries. Alongside the cutting edge work that shone at top international festivals last year, the 20 sections of the programme include a number of memorable classics, selected masterpieces from virtuoso directors of film history, several documentary films and some original examples of animation cinema.

For the detailed program please click on:

http://www.iksv.org/film/english/index.asp

Armada Welcomes M.I.T. Sloan School Of Management Mba Students

Among the distinguished Armada guests nowadays is the MIT Sloan School of Management 2006 Spring Break Trip participants. The trip that was called as Turkey: A Bridge Between Civilizations is a part of their curriculum on Turkey.

The organizing team consisting of Abdullah O. Kaya, Şahver Binici, Alper T. Çelen, Emre Gürkan and Ahmet Uğurlu states that they hope to surpass this introduction by devoting enough time to Turkey as the only destination. They arranged meetings with representatives of major holding companies, media companies, universities, and politicians and visit Istanbul and Ankara city centers and historic sites to better understand the composition of Turkey’s oriental western culture.

The main objectives of the trip are:
• Exposure: Provide an opportunity for MIT-Sloan students to explore Turkey
• Education: Increase Sloan students’ understanding of factors that currently influence the
economic, political and social development of Turkey
• Development: Learn about development and entrepreneurial activity in Turkey
• Networking: Provide opportunities for MIT-Sloan students to build relationships with alumni and businesses in Turkey in order to increase opportunities for Sloan students that wish to work and/or conduct business in Turkey.

Yesterday they also met with some NGOs in a round table in Aksam Media Group . After having watched the total solar eclipse at the Armada Terrace the group will depart for Ankara tomorrow.

The picture below that was took place at the Sloan web site shows a previous visit to Sultanahmet:

The Solar Eclipse: 29th March, 2006

The Solar eclipse is a magnificent natural event that one can see maybe only once in a lifetime. Total solar eclipse occurs on Wednesday, 29 March 2006, in Brazil, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. This will be a spectacular eclipse, lasting over 4 minutes at maximum and visible by millions of people over a path up to 190 km wide. After Africa, the eclipse path crosses the Mediterranean Sea and enters the Asian continent through Turkey, where it hits land about 13:54 L.T. The path width is 171 km, and the duration on the centreline is 3 minutes 48 seconds. After this it will leave Turkey from the north east coast at 14:13 L.T., then it crosses the Black Sea, cuts a corner of Georgia, and then enters Russia, running across the north end of the Caspian Sea.

On March 29, 2006, Istanbul also will experience the solar eclipse (covered fraction is 86.7%) and our Terrace will be open to our guests. (First contact at 12:41 hrs., maximum eclipse 13:57 hrs. and last contact at 15:12). But we would like to urge that you should be careful when watching the solar eclipse! Please never look directly at the sun, either with the naked eye or through any optical device, including cameras, binoculars, or telescopes! You could ask for the safe solar glasses to the Reception (first come first serve!).

Happy observing!

PS: For a live photo-cast of the total eclipse from Konya click on the following link: http://www.tourkeyf.com/solar_eclipse.htm
GLOBAL WEB SITE: http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/

Shots from the Armada Terrace during the observation today:

World Poetry Day

Message from Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of World Poetry Day 2006, 21 March 2006

The world constantly changes across time and space, from day to day, from one place to another. And human beings are no exception, for we too are in transformation.

To begin with, our own lives as individuals are an exercise in adaptation. In their collectivities, peoples and their societies, cultures and civilizations change across the span of history. Human beings are enterprising agents of change, transforming their environments and, in the process, transforming themselves, thereby challenging any simple sense of a fixed, immutable human nature. And yet the human condition stubbornly remains and when, across time and distance, we recognize ourselves in others and others in ourselves, do we not recognize something enduring? Is there anything that captures simultaneously things in flux and things that do not change?

Of course there is, and that is poetry. Our languages, of course, are different and the ways in which we place words, phrases and sentences may vary, as do the forms and metres of our poetries. But poetry, through its diverse shapes and rhythms, draws us back to the dialogue of change and permanence in life itself.

Through language, we express our different beliefs, values and experiences, and the plurality of this flow of identities makes up humanity. Poetry is a bridge between individuals and groups, helping us to know and understand each other and, indeed, ourselves. It articulates – sometimes simply, sometimes with deep complexity – our fears, hopes, yearnings and forebodings. In its highest forms, poetry is capable of expressing a truth which captures the essence of our shared humanity. And the beauty of poetry reminds us of the artistic heights which humankind can reach.

This year, we are celebrating the centenary of the birth of the great philosopher-poet, Leopold Sédar Senghor. He wrote: “It is enough to name something for the meaning beneath the sign to emerge.” Poetry is the great way of naming the world, its permanent features and its transformations, in a manner that delights the human spirit. Let World Poetry Day remind us of this magical capacity of poetry in all its forms.

Source: http://portal.unesco.org

Tango Passion By Omar And Monica At Armada

Tango Passion; passionate tango or passion of tango... Omer Ocampo and his partner Monica Romero, the top dancers of the worldly renowned tango group; Tango Passion of Argentine, will be performing at Armada on March 19, 2006.

Monica Romero was born in Buenos Aires, the daughter of famous artist Estela Raval and singer and musician Rycardo Romero. She studied jazz and modern dance, studying and performing with prestigious choreographers and dancers such as Nuri Cid, Beatriz and Victor Ferrari and Moira Chapman. In 1984 she reached a turning point in her career when she met Omar Ocampo. They married and established 'Los Ocampo.' Omar Ocampo was born in Entre Rios and started his professional dance career at an early age, dancing with the Ballet Folklorico Nacional of Santiago Ayala, 'El Chucaro' and Norma Viola for 11 years. Omar Ocampo is the best folk dancer of Argentina and is a judge of the 'Danzas Argentinas Competition.' They've been travelling together performing the tango around the world since 1988.

For more about Los Ocampo, check out their website:
http://www.losocampo.com.ar/

Award Winning Spring Festival

Federation of Turkish Tour Guide Association (TUREB) 2005 Tourism Awards (Tourism Oscars) were given in a ceremony held at Maxigala, under the New Galata Bridge, on February 21, 2006. TUREB offers awards each year on February 21, which is the World Tourist Guides Day, to projects, individuals and institutions that operate with the aim of protecting the environment and cultural heritage. The awards are given according to the online votes of thousands of tourist guides. Among the this years' candidates of Best Authentic and Local Event was The Hıdrellez at Ahırkapı activities which became the winner.

Hıdrellez Festival, that is still celebrated with grand ceremonies in Anatolia, has been celebrated since ancient times. Although it is celebrated under different names and in different times, it is possible to see the motifs of Hıdrellez in many places. The arrival of spring and awakening of nature has been perceived as a phenomenon to be celebrated. In fact, Hıdrellez, as a spring festival, has a universal character. The ones at the Ahirkapi Street were first designed in the pioneership of Armada and since then they are being commonly owned by the civic community and supported by local Eminönü Municipality. See: www.hidrellez.org

St. Valentine’s Day At The Armada

SPECIAL PACKAGES AND SURPRISE PROMOTIONS:
“HONEYMOON IN SPAIN”,
“ROMANTIC STAY AT THE ARMADA”;
“A SUNDAY BRUNCH” and participation in a “TANGO NIGHT”

For the evening of Tuesday, February 14th, 2006, on the occasion of St. Valentine's Day, the ARMADA Hotel planned different packages for valentines of all ages, including a welcome cocktail and surprise promotions…

The couples who will celebrate the “St. Valentine’s Day 2006” at the Armada Hotel will be met with a complimentary welcome cocktail at the Terrace where warm wine, orange with cinnamon, apple with coffee will be served... During the cocktail, 4 lucky couples will each win one of the following promotions:

- “Honeymoon at Spain”: The lucky couple will be hosted for (four days - three nights) at the Hotal Sagaro, one of the most beautiful hotels at the Costa Brava seashore with a private beach of Girona city in Spain. (http://www.hotelsagaro.com/)

- A romantic stay at the Armada Hotel on St. Valentine’s night, wake up to a complimentary rich breakfast with champagne and strawberries…

- A free Sunday Brunch at the Armada Hotel…

- A free admission for the Armada Hotel Tango Night held on every Sunday with the participation of tango masters Umit Iris and Seval Ugur Mutlu…

HOTEL SAGARO

Programs and Accommodation Packages
1) “Dance and Dinner” at the Ahırkapı Restaurant with live music by “Group Mediterranean”
2) Dinner with the sounds of a live “Trio” playing the 60’s & 70’s music under the almost full moonlight through the glass-glazed SERA Restaurant next to the Terrace enjoying a panoramic sight on the historic peninsula of the city.

Menu: Appetizers, Pastry with Salmon, Steak fillet wrapped with vegetables, Green salad with ginger sauce, Walnut Parfet with season’s fruits on skewers, domestic drinks…

PRICES

Price including VAT (per person)	Without Accommodation	Accommodation & Breakfast
Ahırkapı Restaurant	60 YTL.	110 YTL.
Armada Sera	75 YTL.	125 YTL.

For reservation: Armada Sales Team
0212 - 455 44 55
infosatis@armadahotel.com.tr
Zerrin Kelebek (0 212 455 44 70)
Nilüfer Yünlü (0 212 455 44 71)
Bülent Tağcı (0 212 455 44 72)