Turkish universities, civil society and academia are interested to engage more with Bangladesh to know its culture and language.

A centre to study history of South Asia with special focus on Bangladesh and introduction of Bangla language course was under active consideration by two reputed Turkish universities.

Bangladesh Consul General in Istanbul Monirul Islam told Bangla Tribune, “We interact with the universities and academia on a regular basis to promote Bangladesh here.”

“I attended a programme on ‘Importance of History in Solidifying Partnership: Reference to Bangladesh – Turkey Bilateral Relations’ today (Wednesday) in Uskudar University where over 200 academia and students attended.”

Proctor of the university Nevzat Tarhan proposed to set up a centre to study South Asian history including Bangladesh-Turkey relationship, Monir said.

“We encourage such initiative and will be in touch with the university,” he added.

Monir said we also attended another programme on Sufism in Bangladesh at Istanbul University and a proposal is under active consideration to open up a Bengali language course in the campus.

“This is part of overall soft diplomacy where we bank on cultural side,” he added.

Bangladesh also arranged a three-day food festival last month which drew attention of huge number of Turkish people, Monir said.