By Manal Abdel Fattah
Turkey’s Ambassador to Cairo, Salih Mutlu Şen, participated in the certificate award ceremony for academics who successfully completed the “Capacity Development Program for Turkish Language Departments in Egyptian Universities” hosted by Yunus Emre Institute in Cairo and organized in cooperation with Yunus Emre Institute, the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities and Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University, and Ambassador Şen exchanged conversations with the academics.
During his speech at the ceremony, Ambassador Salih Mutlu Şen explained that giving Egypt this much attention to Turkish language education is very valuable and has historical and cultural reasons, explaining that he hopes that Turkish education will become stronger and continue with Turkey’s contribution.
In his speech to the students of the Turkish departments, Ambassador Salih Mutlu Şen expressed his hope and desire that the Capacity Development Program for Turkish Departments in Egyptian Universities will be the beginning of other long-term programs, saying, “We stand by you, and we appreciate your work one by one.” Ambassador Salih Mutlu Şen said that he called on Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University and the Presidency of Turks Abroad and Related Communities to develop innovative programs in this regard, adding that taking into account the interest in Turkish language departments in Egypt, Turkish language, Turkish culture, economy, industry, science and technology, in addition to the cultural and human rapprochement with Egypt, Turkey desires and calls for increasing the number of postgraduate scholarships, postgraduate research and doctoral scholarships for Egyptian students to 500 scholarships.
Ambassador Salih Mutlu Şen also stated that he hopes that Turkish universities will organize short-term programs in Turkey for Turkish language professors, saying, “We want to provide full support to the efforts of Turkish departments in Egypt and Turkish culture in Egypt by sending professors to Egypt in cooperation with the Education Counselorship of our embassy, and also by sending teachers in cooperation with Yunus Emre, and by providing scholarships to a greater number of Egyptian students in Turkey through our Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities, in addition to providing more research opportunities through the individual programs of Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University. We are determined and willing to do this, and thank God we have the capabilities in this regard.”
