A delegation of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey headed by the Speaker Cemil Cicek visited Kazan Federal University on April 16th, 2015.

The delegation also included Turkey's ambassador to Russia Umit Yardim, Turkey's consul in Kazan Turhan Dilmac and Tatarstan's Representative in Turkey Aydar Gashigullin. The delegation was met and escorted by the Speaker of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan Farid Mukhametshin.

KFU has strong ties with Turkish educational and research institutions. Today the number of cooperation agreements amounts to ten. Academic exchange is also on a rise, with 91 citizens of Turkey currently studying at our university.

Rector Ilshat Gafurov and other representatives of the University's management welcomed the esteemed guests in the main building along with a number of students of the Institute of International Relations, History and Oriental Studies.

A traditional visit to the Kazan University History Museum was followed by a lecture given by Cemil Cicek to the students of the Institute in the main events hall.

In his greeting Ilshat Gafurov emphasized that Russian-Turkish relations are currently in one of the best periods of their 500-year history. Kazan University is always regarding Turkey as one of its key partner countries which is only natural because of the very strong ties between the Republic of Tatarstan and the Turkish Republic.

Before concluding his visit Cemil Cicek left a traditional memo in the Book of honored guests of KFU: “We had an opportunity to meet with the faculty and the students of this 210-year-old university whose alumni include a great number of distinguished scientists, people of arts and politicians. The interest to our country which is so evident here among all students, not only those who specialize in Turkic studies, gave our belief in a bright future of the cooperation with the Republic of Tatarstan and Russia another boost”.

Notes

Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Cemil Cicek was elected to his current position on July 4, 2011. He is second in the line of succession to the President so his foreign policy activities carry much weight. He is in charge of meeting the arriving delegations in case the President is otherwise engaged. The Speaker participates in interparliamentary cooperation associations such as Black Sea Economic Cooperation Parliamentary Assembly, NATO Parliamentary Assembly, OECD Parliamentary Assembly, Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly and some others.