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Display devoted to the 70th anniversary of lifting the siege of Leningrad opens in Turkey

ANKARA, January 31, 22:21 /ITAR-TASS/. An exhibition devoted to the 70th anniversary of Leningrad’s (now St.Petersburg) full liberation from the fascist siege during WWII has opened in the Turkish capital Ankara. It features 30 archive photos depicting the life of the besieged city as well as drawings and pictures of the siege survivors.

The display was organized by the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation, the Russian embassy in Ankara and the mayor’s office of the Altundag district.

“The siege of Leningrad is an event which has no analogues in world history. No other city in the world has lost so many of its people as Leningrad did during WWII. The siege became one of the most terrible words of that war,” Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Krylov said at the opening ceremony which was also attended by diplomats from the Commonwealth of Independent States, representatives of the mayor’s office as well as teachers and students of local institutions of high learning who study the Russian language and Russian history.

The exhibition will be open until February 5. Natig Guliyev, the head of the Turkish-based office of the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation, said commemorations of the 70th anniversary of lifting the siege of Leningrad by the Red Army on January 27, 1944, would continue in Turkey throughout the year as part of the Ribbon of St. George action.

The ribbon constitutes one of the most recognised and respected symbols of military valour in modern Russia. It is widely associated with the commemoration of World War II. The ribbon consists of a black and orange bi-colour pattern, with three black and two orange stripes. Its origins lay back in the times of the Russian Empire.

Since the 60th anniversary of Victory Day marked in 2005, the ribbon is freely worn by civilians in Russia and other former republics of the USSR as an act of commemoration and remembrance. It has since been distributed in Moscow, all over Russia, and around the world in the preparation for the event and is widely seen on wrists, lapels, and cars.

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