The 11th Olympiad is organized by the International Turkish Education Association (TÜRKÇEDER) and began on June 1 with a grand ceremony in Ankara. It will end on June 16, with a closing ceremony to be held at Atatürk Olimpiyat Stadium in İstanbul. During the event various stage shows have been performed by Turkish Olympiad students in 55 Turkish provinces.
A large stage show was held at 21 Kasım Stadium in the Southeastern city of Mardin on Monday night with the participation of over 20,000 locals, who welcomed 80 Turkish Language Olympiad students from 20 countries. Mardin is a city where love and tolerance are bound together and where people with different religions, ethnicities, languages and cultures are living in harmony. It is known as the door of civilizations. As the main theme of the Turkish Olympiads is universal peace, the show in Mardin carried great significance in terms of sending out the message of peaceful coexistence to the world.
The show started with the performance of Arsalan Naseer of Pakistan, whose voice has been compared to that of Kurdish singer and composer Ahmet Kaya. Mardin locals took great interest in Naseer's performance. The show continued with singing, poetry recitation and Turkish folk dance performances by students from various countries. The students also sang songs in the Kurdish and Arabic languages. Famous Kurdish singer Berdan Mardini, who is from Mardin, was among the attendees. He performed an enthralling duet with an Iraqi student.
In a speech, the governor of Mardin province, Ahmet Cengiz, said that there were thousands of Turkish people who once wanted to attend foreign schools in Turkey, but now people abroad are competing with each other to be able to attend Turkish schools established overseas by Turkish businessmen.
He stated Mardin is unique in its geographical and cultural richness the world over and added that he most likes the tolerance that is considered the symbol of the city.
Saliba Özmen, the metropolitan of Mardin, at the Deyrulzafaran Monastery, an important Syriac Orthodox monastery near Mardin, also attended the ceremony. Stating that Mardin has witnessed a very important day, Özmen said: “I salute Deyrulzafaran Monastery; the historic Kasımiye Madrasa; and all Kurds, Turks and Arabs in Mardin. We are all very happy to host children from various parts of the world in Mardin, where very different people live together in peace. It is a great honor for us.”
Olympiad heads to Malatya, Van and other cities
Another grand stage show as part of the 11th Turkish Olympiad was held at İnönü Stadium in the Eastern province of Malatya on Monday night, with the participation of many top-level governmental officials, politicians, academics and 25,000 locals. A total of 90 students from 25 countries took part in the stage show in Malatya.
In a speech, Malatya Mayor Vasip Şahin thanked teachers who devotedly teach at Turkish schools around the world. The show ended with a choral performance by students, who sang a song titled “Constructing A New World.”
Kurdish and Turkish songs were sung at a stage show in the Eastern province of Van, also on Monday night. A total of 90 students from 13 countries performed during the show, which was held with for 17,000 locals. An Iraqi student, Geylan Tahiri, sang a well-known Kurdish song “Rındamın” (My Beauty), thrilling the audience.
Monday night saw more similar stage shows held in the Eastern province of Erzurum, the western province of Kütahya and in the Sincan district of Ankara.
Each year, thousands of students around the world prepare for the Olympiads, but only the finalists who win at national competitions are invited to the international competition in Turkey. The competition will award gold medals to the top 10 individuals, silver medals to the top 10 percent of competitors and bronze medals to the top 30 percent.
Published on Today's Zaman, 11 June 2013, Tuesday
