The national poet and author of the National Anthem of Turkey, Mehmet Akif Ersoy, who lived in Egypt for many years, was commemorated at Yunus Emre Institute (YEI) in Cairo on his 85th death anniversary.

In his speech at the commemoration program on December 27, 2021, Cairo Yunus Emre Institute Director Emin Boyraz said, "The personality of our national poet, who had spent a significant portion of his life in Egypt, as well as his life in Egypt and his connection to Egypt is especially exemplary for us."

Boyraz emphasized that the poet was a Turkish language teacher at the University of Cairo 85 ago and said, "85 years later, we are teaching the Turkish language under his light in Egypt at one of the centers that teaches Turkish language the most globally."

A POETRY READING CONTEST WAS HELD

On the other hand, a poetry reading contest was organized at Cairo Yunus Emre Institute where Mehmet Akif Ersoy was commemorated.

Emira Malik, one of the trainees of Cairo Yunus Emre Institute who read the ten verses of the National Anthem, was ranked first in the contest, and the Institute student Fatma Şakir read the poem, "For the Martyrs of Çanakkale".

Within the scope of the program, Hacer Salah, one of the lecturers of the Institute, delivered a presentation entitled "Mehmet Akif from the Perspective of an Egyptian".

The presentation was about the literary personality of Akif as well as his life in Egypt and provided examples of poems he had written in Egypt and some of which were publish in Cairo.

After one minute of silence, poems of Akif were read at the program. The commemoration program ended with a documentary about the poet's life.