During an official visit to Istanbul, the Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia in Turkey Zoran Markovic visited the associations of our emigrants in Pendik and Bajrampasa. These associations bring together the largest number of emigrants and their descendants from the territory of the former Yugoslavia, primarily Bosniaks from the Raska region in the Republic of Serbia, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. Ambassador Zoran Marković, on this occasion, presented several packages of textbooks for learning Bosnian for younger elementary school students, which is part of a wider project implemented with the support of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Serbia and several sponsors, members of our emigrant community in the Republic of Turkey. The aim is to bring our language, tradition and culture closer to the youngest generations of the emigrants.

Ambassador Zoran Markovic emphasized in his interview with the management and members of the association that knowledge of language, tradition and culture is important for maintaining relations with the home country. The goal should not only be to obtain a travel document from the Republic of Serbia, while young generations do not know the basic information and facts about the country from which their parents and ancestors come. In this context, modalities of further cooperation in the field of education were considered. The next steps are the organization of language courses in Istanbul, as well as in Ayvalik, a famous Turkish resort where traditionally most of our emigration rest during the summer holidays. In this way, the youngest would learn our language and acquire basic knowledge about the Republic of Serbia through play and entertainment. Our emigrants also expressed interest in establishing institutional cooperation between schools in the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Turkey, as well as for student exchange programs, and attending summer sports camps (basketball, tennis, etc.) in the Republic of Serbia.

In addition, the meetings which Consul-Gérant Ms. Sandra Vujinovic attended, were also used for discussions on other consular issues of interest to the population of our emigrants in the Republic of Turkey, primarily topics related to the acquisition of citizenship and travel documents of the Republic of Serbia.