One Letter, Two Villages

letter links to original article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 25 September 2013)

                                                                  Gordes, in France

The book 'Brand City Manisa', prepared and printed as part of
the '251 Thousand Great Student Project',  under the leadership
of former Manisa Governor Halil İbrahim Daşöz, has come out with
a major mistake.  Fifty thousand copies of  the 248-page tourist
guide book, which depicts touristic places in all of Manisa's districts
were printed and sold to students for 5 TL.

We don't speak French in Gördes !

The picture used for the district of Gördes is in fact a picture of
the touristic village of Luberon Gordes in France's Provence region.
The mistake was the result of the two villages' very similar names.

Provincial tourism chief Erdinç Karaköse stated that the error occurred
when the publishing agency used the wrong photograph. Karaköse
added that "we're not in the business of publicizing a French village.
Despite being checked many times before publication, the 4 centimeter
photograph escaped notice.  This is the agency's fault. We've started
an investigation into the matter and the photograph that was used."

Kinda hard to see, but Gördes is in

north-central Manisa province.