Renowned historian and writer Prof. Dr. İlber Ortaylı has given advice on knowing and learning a language and communication at the Applied Cultural Diplomacy Training Program. Lecturers for the fifth week of the program, launched by the Cultural Diplomacy Academy, were Prof. Dr. Ortaylı, Uluç Özülker, Prof. Dr. Kenan Gürsoy, Mustafa Özel and Ahmet Sula.

In his lecture, Ortaylı pointed out that cultural diplomacy is a mission. "In the countries you will visit, you will see lots of people who want to learn Turkish. There is an unbelievably high interest in some countries. If you promote something, there will always be people who will show interest in it. This should be our guiding principle and we should step up our efforts to promote our language," he said.

Ortaylı noted that Turkish is spoken in a large geography extending from central China to the Danube. "You come across to the traces of Turks everywhere you go in the world as it was before the age of discovery. You will find our manuscripts, artifacts or, at least, our ties. In the most unexpected occasions, you can run into a person with a Turkish surname. So, we are sitting on a gigantic legacy with our presence in a huge geography. Our goal is to promote ourselves, our culture and language, he said.

"A statist society in every period of history"

Former Ambassador Uluç Özülker shared his experience in statecraft and diplomacy with the participants. Özülker stated that Turkey has seen numerous crises due to its geography during the last 200 years.

He underlined that thanks to the experiences gained as a statist society in every period of history, Turkey has emerged as a powerful country in the field of diplomacy.

The Applied Cultural Diplomacy Training Program, organized by Yunus Emre Institute's Cultural Diplomacy Academy, provides an opportunity for those who want to work at international organizations and civil society organizations. During the workshops, the participants can turn what they learn into practical projects.