Students from 135 countries to join Turkish Olympiads this year


Date posted: March 11, 2012

İBRAHİM ASALIOĞLU, ANKARA

Foreign students from 135 countries will attend the 10th International Turkish Olympiads, which brings together hundreds of foreign students each year from Turkish schools established throughout the world.

A total of 1,500 students will compete at this year’s Olympiads, organized by the International Turkish Education Association (TÜRKÇEDER), in singing and poetry recitation contests, fascinating audiences with their outstanding performances of popular Turkish songs and well-known Turkish poems.

The theme of this year’s Olympiads, which will run from May 30-June 14, is “İnsanlık için el ele” (Hand-in-hand for humanity). Last year’s slogan was “One language, 7 billion people,” signifying the world uniting under one common language.

This year’s competitions will be predominantly held in Ankara and İstanbul, but there will also be activities in 38 other Turkish cities.

Ankara’s Kızılcahamam Asya Thermal Complex will host the Turkish-speaking children of the world for the duration of their two-week stay.

Foreign schools whose students attend the Olympiads will be able to set up tables to introduce their cultures at a cultural festival to be held mainly at the İstanbul World Trade Center.

Each year, about 15,000 students around the world prepare for the Olympiads, but only the finalists who win at national competitions are invited to attend the huge international competition in Turkey.

The competition will see gold medals given to the top 10 individuals, silver medals given to the top 10 percent of competitors and bronze medals given to the top 30 percent of competitors. TL 1,500 will be presented to gold medal winners, TL 1,125 to silver medal winners and TL 900 to bronze medal winners.

Tuncay Öztürk, secretary-general of TÜRKÇEDER, told Today’s Zaman that interest in the Olympiads increases with each passing year. Regarding the theme of this year’s competition, Öztürk said, “Our aim is to bring together all people in an atmosphere of love and dialogue.” He added that the Olympiads will be a feast of Turkish language that will be celebrated enthusiastically in every corner of Anatolia.

Source: Today's Zaman , March 11, 2012


Related News

Erdogan pushes to close down Gulen-inspired Turkish schools in Africa

Turkish President Erdogan is pressing ahead for the closure of Turkish schools affiliated with the Gülen movement (aka Hizmet movement) in African countries. There are more than 100 Gülen-inspired schools in Africa, as well as other parts of the world. The government praised these schools in the past as key institutions promoting Turkish culture abroad.

Graduation ceremony of Pak-Turk school held

Pak-Turk International School and College is the only institution in Quetta where the students get modern education. The schooling system should be launched in other districts of the province, so that more children could get education and increase the rate of literacy of the province.

Pak-Turk schools hold graduates moot

The school administration believes that the action is taken to appease Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who believes that the school promotes and teaches his arch-rival and cleric Fetullah Gulen’s teachings. “We have gone through the school curriculum during our time and have not found them imparting any extremism ideology or anything that goes against the interests of Pakistan,” said one of the graduates.

Fatih, Yamanlar, Samanyolu schools win medals at science Olympiad

İstanbul’s private Fatih Science High School, Ankara’s private Samanyolu Science High School and İzmir’s private Yamanlar Science High School picked up several medals on Wednesday in the 20th National Science Olympiad and the 17th National Mathematics Olympiad for primary and secondary schools.

Cultural diaspora

It is always seen that youth living abroad have opportunity to go on tours to different countries to learn from their culture. But for them to understand the intricacies, International Festival of Language and Culture (IFLC) is being held in various countries since its inception in 2003. This year the IFLC is going to be held in the national Capital where students from across the world are going to participate.

Kyrgyz Culture Minister: Turkish schools are of golden value to us

Kyrgyzstan’s Minister of Culture and Tourism Sultan Rayev attended the Turkish Language Olympics’ eliminations in his country. Rayev in his statements said, “Theses schools are of golden value to us. In fact, even more than that as gold mines will be exhausted sooner or later but knowledge won’t.”

Latest News

Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison

Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney

Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement

ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment

New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement

European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade

Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet

In Case You Missed It

Ten thoughts on the [Erdogan] way of trolling

Arresting police to make Erdoğan happy

Coup d’état attempt: Turkey’s Reichstag fire?

Fethullah Gulen Talked to Kurdish TV on Kurds, human rights and Erdogan

CSOs across Turkey slam campaign under way to discredit Hizmet movement

Kurdish Issue Discussed in New York

Gülen to file lawsuit against PM Erdoğan over defamation campaign

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News