Prestigious Turkish Olympiad song award goes to Tajik student

Today's Zaman

Tajik student received a prestigious song award on Tuesday night in İstanbul where youth from dozens of nations have displayed superb and stunning performances in now world-famous Turkish language contest that has been able to attract millions across the globe.

Yunusov (L) with Minister of State Bagis

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 seen as a cultural festival during which students promote their countries.

Turkey's State Minister Egemen Bağış announced the winner of the night and lauded the well-organized event that is promoting both Turkish language and culture and building bridges among diverse cultures.

High-level guests from business, media, arts and politics showed up at the event, which will be concluded on June 30. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, along with other ministers, attended the event last year, marking a state-level support for the contest.

Ghanaian students performing
a traditional Turkish dance

If measured by the stronger and lengthy applause by the audience, the dance by Ghana students, who performed traditional dance that belongs to people living in Black Sea towns, "horon," was one of the most well-received show.

Shejla Kochan from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Rahmi Amalia from Indonesia became 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 will kill [Nobel laureate 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 became a top trend in 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 [Gülen] who built cultural bridges [with Turkic republics] is now homesick.

Jury members and other high-profile guests thanked the organizers for what they commonly called "a wonderful show."
 
Published on Today's Zaman, 22 June 2011, Wednesday