President Erdoğan went to Bosnia-Herzegovina to hold official talks.

President Erdoğan held one-on-one and inter-delegations meetings with the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina Bakir Izzetbegovic. Erdoğan also visited the Kovaci Martyrs’ Cemetery and the tomb of late Aliya Izzerbegovic,  the first President of independent Bosnia-Herzegovina.     

Erdoğan then attended a ceremony at the International University of Sarajevo where he was awarded an honorary doctorate. Erdoğan said in his speech there that they would diversify the support for the Turkish children living abroad to learn their mother tongue Turkish.  

Erdoğan added that nearly 500 students have studied in the Turkololgy  departments in the universities in Sarajevo, Mostar, Tuzla and Zenica in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and that nearly 6 thousand Bosnian students have so far participated in the trainings courses organized by the Yunus Erme Institute in Bosnia-Herzegovina with a view to promoting Turkey and the Turkish language, culture and art.    

He also shared the information that the number of students in the “I prefer Turkish” project has reached 8.243 in 150 schools this year, rising from nearly one thousand students in 43 schools in the 2011-2012 education-training year when the project was launched.   

Erdoğan stated that they have been doing all these efforts with the support of civil society organizations, foundations and associations alongside the state institutions and added that “the International University of Sarajevo, where I am proud to be today, is one of the good fruits of our vision in this direction.”