The performance of Tajikistan´s Shohrukh Yunusov in the song contest as part of the Turkish Language Olympiad was selected by high-profile jury members, composed of intellectuals, singers, artists, movie directors and designers, as the best.
Organized by the International Turkish Education Association (TÜRKÇEDER), this year´s Turkish Olympiads are hosting around 1,000 students from 130 countries, including Afghanistan, Argentina, Venezuela, Benin, Ethiopia, France, Italy, Uganda, the Maldives and Sri Lanka. This year´s competition is being held in Ankara, İstanbul and Bursa. The Turkish Olympiads are also seen as a cultural festival during which students can promote their own countries.
Turkey´s State Minister Egemen Bağış announced the winner of the night and lauded the well-organized event promoting both Turkish language and culture and building bridges among diverse cultures. High-level guests from the worlds of business, media, arts and politics showed up for the events, which will be concluded on June 30. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, along with other ministers, attended the event last year, marking state-level support for the contest.
If measured by the strong and lengthy applause of the audience, the dance by students from Ghana, who performed a traditional dance of people living in Black Sea region and known as “horon,” was one of the most well-received show. Shejla Kochan from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Rahmi Amalia from Indonesia came in second and third, respectively, in the song contest.
Filmmaker Sinan Çetin welcomed the organization of the event and personally thanked Fethullah Gülen, an esteemed Turkish Islamic scholar living in the US, for not leaving Turkish nationalism to what he called “those who killed [Turkish-Armenian journalist] Hrant Dink and those who say [they] will kill [Nobel laureate and Turkish author] Orhan Pamuk.”
Most of the students participating in the Turkish Language Olympiad are studying at Turkish schools abroad, established by businessmen who were inspired by Gülen. Çetin´s remarks were very popular on Twitter among Turkish tweeps, who mostly welcomed the filmmaker´s candid remarks.
Bağış, while announcing the winner of the night, also said he is on the same page with Çetin, adding that the one, meaning Gülen, who built cultural bridges is now homesick. Jury members and other high-profile guests also thanked the organizers for what they commonly called “a wonderful show.”
