The sixth International Turkish Language Olympics will host 550 participants from 110 countries from May 22-June 2, delivering messages of peace and brotherhood to the world.

- 21 / 05 / 2008 08:58

The sixth International Turkish Language Olympics will host 550 participants from 110 countries from May 22-June 2, delivering messages of peace and brotherhood to the world.

Under the chairmanship of former Education Minister and current Parliamentary National Education Commission Chairman Mehmet Saglam, the sixth International Turkish Language Olympics will unite students from 110 countries under the umbrella of the Turkish language.

Students from high schools will compete in several areas including poems recitation, songs, story writing, presentations and basic knowledge of spoken Turkish.

The International Language Education Association organizes the Turkish Olympics, being held this year at the Asya Thermal Hotel in the town of Kizilcahaman, just north of Ankara.

On May 24-25 there will be a cultural exhibition at Ankara’s Altinpark wherein participants from each country will introduce their respective cultures to the Turkish people.

The final competition at the Turkish Olympics -- singing -- will be conducted at Ankara’s Anadolu Exhibition and Congress Center.

Olympics contestants will begin their language adventure in preliminary trials at the Asya Thermal Hotel on May 22; the competition’s official opening is on May 24 at Altinpark.

Last year 90,000 people visited the culture exhibition, which was organized in Istanbul’s Feshane, and this year 200,000 people are expected to visit the cultural exhibition in Ankara’s Altinpark.

The award ceremony for the Turkish Olympics will be held on June 1 with the participation of Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and will be live-broadcast by many national television channels.

In a first for Turkish Olympics events, this year some event activities will take place in various provinces around Turkey.

The folk dancing preliminary trials, for example, will be held in the central Anatolian province of Kayseri and the poetry competition final will be held in Bursa.

Students will participate in several activities in Erzurum, Gaziantep, Konya and Izmir as well.

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