Friendship Truck met with Cultural Envoys in Bursa
Friendship truck that set off on August 4th to meet with 2016 Turkish Summer School students visited Bursa. Travelling from city to city as part of Turkish Summer School Culture Nights, Friendship Truck brought together 40 students from 20 countries with Bursa locals at Bursa City Square following the programs in Samsun, Ankara, Denizli, İzmir, Denizli, and Çanakkale.
Event organised by contribution of Bursa Governorship, Bursa Municipality and Bursa Directorate of Culture and Tourism, took start as Yunus Emre Enstitüsü students who receive trainings in Bursa Uludağ University TÖMER and Ankara University TÖMER Bursa Branch and participate in cultural events, welcomed Friendship Truck at Bursa City Square.
Following the welcoming ceremony, a meeting dinner was hosted by Bursa Metropolitan Municipality. After the dinner organised in Bursa Gönül Dostları Sofrası for Turkish Summer School students, Culture Nights was commenced in City Square with all its joy. Bursa locals that took City Square and warmly welcomed Turkish Summer School students.
Culture Nights event was attended by Bursa Deputy Osman Mestan, Bursa Deputy Governor Yunus Fatih Kadiroğlu, Bursa Metropolitan Municipality Deputy Mayor Abdülkadir Karlık and Yunus Emre Enstitüsü Vice President Assoc. Prof. Ebubekir Ceylan.
In his opening speech, Ebubekir Ceylan spoke as follows: “We have opened 45 Turkish Culture Centres in 37 countries abroad so far. We teach Turkish to foreigners in these centres and organise significant activities to promote Turkish culture, history, and arts. We make efforts to introduce all aspects of Turkish language, culture, arts and history in symposiums, conferences and bull sessions, exhibitions, concerts, and film screenings. Now students who learn Turkish in culture centres abroad and participate in cultural events get the chance to meet with Turkey and Turkish people on site.” Following the opening speech by Vice President Ceylan, the promotional videos of Yunus Emre Enstitüsü and Turkish Summer School and short film of Ankara, Samsun and Denizli programs were screened.
Before “I Compete in Turkish” event, each student greeted Bursa locals and gave messages supporting Turkey. The most exciting moments of Culture Nights program took place during “I Compete in Turkish” activity. Citizens who attended the event, participated in the competition which was applauded by the audience.
Fatemeh Rafiei from Iran, Mohammad Barakat from Palestine, Fadila Methadzovic from Montenegro, Gent Jetuullahu from Kosovo, Piotr Pawlaczyk from Poland competed in “I Compete in Turkish” broadcast live on Sound of Turkish Radio which students both enjoyed and learned. All students answered 9 out of 10 questions on Turkish culture, history, art, Bursa and Turkish grammar, right and shared the first place. Widely attended by Bursa locals, Culture Nights continued with various activities after prizes were presented to winners. Event ended late at night with a group photo shoot after visiting students sang together with Bursa locals and performed folk dances.
Next stop of Culture Nights held as part of Turkish Summer School will be Sakarya. Friendship Truck and Yunus Emre Enstitüsü Cultural Envoys will meet with Sakarya locals on August 16th Tuesday.
