Turkey, Kazakhstan to cooperate in education

Calling bilateral relations between Ankara and Astana “exceptional,” President Abdullah Gul has pledged to lend support to all kinds of bilateral cooperation in the field of education not only for the development of the two countries, but especially for the sake of future generations. Gul’s remarks came yesterday in the Kazakh city of Turkestan where he, along with his Kazakh counterpart, Nursultan Nazarbayev, attended several opening and foundation- laying ceremonies at the International Hoca Ahmet Yesevi Turkish-Kazakh University, which is an international and autonomous mutual state university of the republics of Turkey and Kazakhstan. Accompanied by a large delegation including Nukhet Yetiş, the president of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) and Yusuf Ziya Ozcan, the president of the Higher Education Board (YOK), Gul kicked off his official four-day visit to Kazakhstan on Sunday, arriving in Shymkent. Gül and Nazarbayev proceeded to Turkestan on Monday. Delivering a speech at the university where he was given an honorary doctorate, Gul highlighted Nazarbayev’s contribution to the current level of solidarity and cooperation between Turkey and Kazakhstan. Gul emphasized the importance Ankara attaches to bilateral cooperation between the two countries in education and described the Hoca Ahmet Yesevi University as the most concrete example of this cooperation. “This is necessary not only for the development of our countries, but also for carrying an awareness of friendship and brotherhood to the next generations,” Gul said. Yetis and Ozcan’s presence in the accompanying delegation was meant to further improve this cooperation, he added. There are two Turkish universities and 27 Turkish schools in Kazakhstan. For his part, Nazarbayev remarked that Turkey is a reliable strategic partner for his country, in an apparent reference to the fact that the presidents of the two countries signed a strategic partnership agreement during his official visit to Turkey in October 2009. The Hoca Ahmet Yesevi University is one of the best examples of the friendly relations between Turkey and Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev said, adding: “We should establish an education system that befits the understanding manifested by Ahmet Yesevi.” Yesevi, believed to have lived in the 11th century, was an early Turkish Sufi mystic leader who exerted a powerful influence on the development of mystical orders throughout the Turkic-speaking world.