Foreigners take Turkish courses

The Yunus Emre Institute has provided Turkish language courses to approximately 50,000 foreigners in different countries since 2009, according to the institute’s president.

With 30 centers in foreign countries, the institute aims to open up 10 new cultural centers every year. It also supports countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tunisia and Georgia, that would like integrate the Turkish language into their educational systems.

The president of the Yunus Emre Institute, Professor Ali Fuat Bilkan, said the activities of such institutes are mainly based on language teaching and language promotion. He also mentioned that the Yunus Emre Institute was the Turkish version of Britain’s British Council and Germany’s Goethe Institute.

The institute was formed in 2009 for the purpose of promoting the Turkish language, culture, history and art to the world. Turkish President Abdullah

Gül is the honorary president and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is president of the board of trustees.

The Yunus Emre Institute’s 2013 target is to establish 10 cultural centers in Africa. A new cultural center was just opened in Cairo and talks are continuing for upcoming centers in South Africa, Sudan and Yemen.