The Yunus Emre Institute (YEE) Monday and Wednesday brought together journalists from Türkiye, Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Serbia.
The talks aimed at exchanging views on bilateral ties, areas for potential cooperation as well as problems in the area of media and the prevention of disinformation.
The first media forum, titled "Türkiye-Bosnia Relations between Reality and Perception," was organized in Sarajevo by the YEE in coordination with the foreign ministry and the communications directorate. Representatives of these organizations as well as of TIKA were present at the panel.
Deputy Chairperson of YEE, Abdullah Kutalmış Yalçın in the opening speech said that the institute opened its representation in Sarajevo in 2009 and started to carry out activities toward Turkish language teaching and cultural interactivity.
"In line with our mission to promote Turkish culture and Turkish, which we started with the Balkans, we continue to increase the number of people around the world who create ties with Türkiye and are friends to Türkiye," he emphasized.
YEE’s coordinator for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mehmet Akif Yaman, for his part, added that the institute raised people with connections to Türkiye in almost all seven cantons of the country.
Sarajevo Embassy Undersecretary Emre Gençtuğ also touched upon the relations between the two countries, the trade volume and cooperation projects.
"Türkiye will always continue its support to Bosnia and Herzegovina and further strengthen relations. We can come across some unfounded news about Türkiye in the Bosnian media. These are due to a lack of information. Türkiye is not an external actor in the Balkans. Türkiye is a Balkan country," Gençtuğ underlined.
Journalists from the two countries discussed in which kinds of areas prejudice or disinformation is common against Türkiye and Bosnia and what can be done to achieve improvement.
Daily Sabah Ankara Bureau Chief Dilara Aslan, A Haber Ankara News Director Muhammed Emin Karadağ and Sabah Ankara News Director Erdem Anılan represented Turkuvaz Media at the forums in Sarajevo and Belgrade.
The forum in Belgrade coincided with elections in Serbia in which Aleksandar Vucic was reelected as president.
Türkiye’s ambassador to the country, Hami Aksoy attended the meeting, saying that relations between Ankara and Belgrade are at their highest level in history.
Aksoy said that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would soon visit Serbia while the two countries signed 26 agreements in the past five years, showing growing ties between Türkiye and Serbia.
Aksoy underlined the YEE contributes to deepening cultural relations between the two countries. The institution has given Turkish language courses to 4,000 Serbians since it started operating in Belgrade.
"Serbians do not only learn Turkish from courses, but also through Turkish series with subtitles, which are highly popular," Aksoy added.
"There is great interest toward Türkiye in Serbia. Last year, the number of tourists visiting Türkiye exceeded 360,000 – Serbia is a country of 6.5 million," Aksoy said.
While discussing ties with Serbian journalists, it was conveyed that Türkiye’s image in the country is highly positive while close dialogue between Erdoğan and Vucic was also praised.