8TH INTERNATIONAL TURKISH LANGUAGE OLYMPIADS

8th International Turkish Language Olympiads organized by the International Turkish Education Association were held in Altinpark, Ankara with the participation of 750 students from 120 countries.

In his speech at the Olympiad, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis said that foreign students decided to learn Turkish as they witnessed that Turkish was the language of love. Bagis continued as follows:

'There are many languages in the world but only a few has the word ‘Gonul (Heart)'. Heart has many meanings including love, peace, tolerance, and sympathy… That is what makes Turkish language different. That is what makes Turkey's peace project in the world different. Yunus Emre meant this even centuries before, when he said: let us become friends and make things easier, let us love and be loved. The world shall be left to no one.

When you have a heart approach, you will be free from egoism; materiality will not capture you; and one can understand that wealth is not financial but about heart. One will have a ‘we-feeling' rather than being ‘egocentric'. Turkey learned to have a ‘we-feeling' in the last 8 years and as it lived this feeling, Turkey caught peace in itself. Today in Turkey, people from different ethnic origins, religious groups or life styles began to establish dialogues with each other in peace. Today in Turkey, people establish dialogues and empathize with each other; they care with the problems of other people. Different groups in Turkey began to get worried about the problems of each other.'

In addition to Egemen Bagis, the Mayor of Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, Melih Gokcek and the Chairman of the Organizing Committee, Mehmet Saglam, foreign students and a great number of guests also attended the 8th International Turkish Language Olympiads.

Source: AA