ISLAMABAD, August 23 (DNA): Turkish ambassador to Pakistan Ihsan Mustafa
Yurdakul on Friday expressed the hope that Pakistan-Turkish educational
linkage will get stronger and there will be more exchanges of students,
with the passage of time.

Addressing a Graduation ceremony of Turkish students on learning Urdu
language at Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), he said the government
of Turkey will encourage cooperative partnership among the Universities
of the two countries to earn from each other and have a better
understanding of contemporary knowledge.

He said he was excited to see that a group of Turkish students got
themselves well educated in Urdu language, and they were able to read,
write and speak it after attending just six-week course at the AIOU.

Appreciating the AIOU’s efforts in promoting educational linkages
between the two brotherly countries, he said he was looking forward to
open new avenues of bilateral cooperation.

Welcoming the ambassador, Vice Chancellor Professor Dr. Zia-Ul-Qayyum
said he cherished Pakistan’s deep-rooted relations with Turkey and
wished they should be strong partner in the educational sector.

The AIOU, he added, will soon prepare a ‘Concept paper’ to further
strengthen bilateral ties at the Universities’ level. The AIOU, he said
is actively engaged in enhancing its international collaboration
particularly with the Central Asia States and Pakistan’s great friends
like Turkey.

The Vice Chancellor noted that during their six-week stay in Pakistan,
the Turkish students also acquainted themselves with Pakistani culture
and its historical traditions, while visiting Lahore, Peshawar and some
other cities.

A special six-week course was arranged and designed by the University’s
Department of Urdu.
It is for first time that the students from Turkey joined the AIOU for
learning Urdu. Earlier, the students from Egypt had attended here a
similar course.

The graduation ceremony was also addressed by Registrar AIOU, Dr.
Muhammad Zaigham Qadeer, Dean Social Sciences Dr. Samina Awan, Chairman
Department of Urdu Dr. Abdul Aziz Sahr and Director International
Collaboration and Exchange Office Dr. Zahid Majeed. They spoke about the
keenness of Turkish students learning Urdu.

Currently, the AIOU has also students’ exchange program with Indonesia
and Kyrgyzstan. Besides this, recently Minister of Education from
Belarus Michael A. Zhuravhov visited the AIOU and showed his keen
interest developing cooperative partnership between the two sides at the
higher education level.  DNA

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