MONGOLIAN STUDENTS COMPETE FOR PLACE IN TURKISH OLYMPIADS

Ulaanbaatar, /MONTSAME/ Mongolian students have put their Turkish skills to the test in Ulaanbaatar for a chance to participate in the 8th Turkish Olympiads.
Competing in various categories in the Turkish Olympiads Mongolia Qualifications on Monday, the students’ moving recitation of poetry made the audience weep, while their joyous songs cheered them up.
Turkish Ambassador to Mongolia Ahmet Asim Arar, Turkish Language Association (TDK) head Sukru Akalin, Education Ministry financial and administrative affairs department head Yusuf Esener, the families of the students and many others attended the event.
Students competed in eight categories: singing, poetry, speaking, writing, grammar, special ability, presentation and reading. Speaking during the ceremony, Ambassador Arar said friendship is the most valuable thing people can have. Noting that the basis for friendship is speaking and understanding, Arar said that as a result, language is the fundamental basis of friendship. Speaking a common language and understanding each other through that language, Arar said, is a precondition for accepting our differences and living together in friendship and peace. “We are once more assured as we witness Mongolian students here speaking Turkish that the human bridge between Mongolia and Turkey is continuing to grow in very healthy and positive ways,” he said.
Addressing the audience, Akalin said he was honored to be at such a tremendous event. “Along with being the territories where the Mongolian language and culture flourished, these places are where the Orkhon monuments, the earliest examples of Turkic writings, are situated.”
Zekeriya Ozyrek, the head of Yadigar Educational Institutions, which has established many Turkish schools and other educational institutions in Mongolia, said they have been serving Mongolia since 1994 and they are very happy to be there.
“One-hundred-and-seventy students from Mongolia are competing in the qualifications, and only eight of them will go to Turkey for the finals. The interest of Mongolians in the Olympiads is growing day by day,” Ozyrek said.
S.Batbayar
18.06