The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, signed yesterday at the Moncloa Palace a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen cultural ties with Turkey through cooperation between the Instituto Cervantes and its Turkish equivalent, the Yunus Emre Institute.
The agreement, signed within the framework of the high-level meeting between Spain and Turkey, aims to reinforce cooperation, strengthen cultural and scientific ties, develop joint activities and projects, exchange ideas and support each other in the educational and cultural activities that are organized, as reported by the Ministry in a press release.
Furthermore, the Cervantes and Yunus Emre Institutes undertake to encourage reciprocal participation in their respective training programs, to encourage the promotion of their respective institutions through their institutional media and to evaluate, case by case, the possibility of participating jointly. at high-impact conferences.
Last January, the new extension of the Instituto Cervantes in Ankara was opened, located on the Baglica campus of Baskent University, and attached to the Instituto Cervantes in Istanbul. Since March, Spanish classes, workshops and seminars have been taught, and cultural initiatives have been carried out to enhance the learning of our language and reinforce the presence of Spanish culture in Turkey.
This latest opening in the capital completes the educational and cultural activity of the Istanbul center, which since its inauguration in 2001 has been increasing each year the number of annual enrollments to learn Spanish, to exceed 3,500. Spanish is, in fact, the second foreign language that most interests Turkish students, and has established itself as the third language for adults, only behind English and German.