The symposium entitled "Ottoman Policy on the Maghreb between Sea and Desert in Modern Era 1518-1918" has been held in Laghouat, Algeria.

Hosted by the University of Laghouat between October 15 and 17, 2019 and jointly organized by Algeria State Archives, the University of Algiers 2, the University of Laghouat, Yunus Emre Institute, and the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA), and Turkish Airlines (THY), the conference was launched with the keynote speeches by University of Laghouat Rector Prof. Dr. Benbartal Djmal and Algeria State Archives Director General Prof. Abdelmajid Chiki as well as the representatives of leading universities and research institutions in the country.

The event was attended by the distinguished members of the science, culture and art circles, particularly including the governor of the city, and Turkey was represented by Counselor of the Turkish Embassy in Algeria Mustafa Kara. 

In his keynote speech, Kara stressed that it is impossible to make sense of the Ottoman and Turkish history without Algeria and the Maghreb and assessed the current state of the ties between Algeria and Turkey. Kara underscored the role of Yunus Emre Institute in the establishment of Turkology departments in Algeria for scaling up the bilateral relations.

Noting that the Institute currently has protocols in force in connection with the Turkology departments in five universities in Algeria, namely University of Algiers 2, Constantine 1 University, University of Oran 1, Yahia Fares University of Médéa and University of Sétif 2, Kara indicated that more than 1,000 adults learned Turkish at the training courses given with support from the Institute in addition to the Turkish language and literature departments at universities.

Academics not only from Algeria and Turkey, but also from Tunisia, Morocco, France and Spain attended the event during which the exhibition entitled "Algeria in Ottoman Documents," jointly prepared by the State Archives Department of the Presidency of the Turkish Republic and Algeria State Archives, was unveiled.