On the 700th anniversary of the death of iconic Turkish poet Yunus Emre, UNESCO declared 2021 to be his memorial year. Afterward, Turkey issued a circular that declared 2021 to be the "Year of Yunus Emre and the Turkish language." This initiative, which was taken with the aim of remembering Yunus Emre and promoting the Turkish language and culture worldwide, brought enthusiasm to the Yunus Emre Institute, helping its work gain momentum. In spite of the negative effects of the pandemic, the institute organized more than 500 events related to Yunus Emre last year.

I spoke with Yunus Emre Institute Chairperson Dr. Şeref Ateş, who emphasized that they did not simply set out with the limited goal of introducing Yunus Emre to the world, he said: "Yunus Emre was indeed an intellectual personality who shined light on his own era. However, every society has its own Yunus Emre. Accordingly, we commemorated him in our cultural centers abroad together with his respective counterparts. For example, with Dante in Italy, with Erasmus in Holland and with Confucius in China. This is because their fundamental views are based on unity. In other words, the fact that everything created in nature supports each other. While many refer to this as 'humanism,' for us the equivalent is the concept of 'unity.'"

More interest in Yunus Emre

Based on concrete data, it is possible to say that foreigners expressed interest in these ambitious projects. According to Ateş, as a result of the activities relating to the Yunus Emre year, interest in Yunus Emre has increased particularly in European and Latin American countries. He cites the increased digital sales of the poet's works as proof of this: "We have always tried to express Yunus Emre's thoughts within a universal framework. As a result, serious awareness has arisen. Moreover, it was Yunus Emre himself that laid the first foundations for Turkish to become a language of communication, art, culture and philosophy. That is why teaching Turkish was our top priority last year.

"For the first time last year, 125,000 people from around the world attended our Turkish courses for at least three months. We created a simultaneous platform in order to provide distance education in Turkish and opened free courses for 20-30 people, and people from different parts of the world attended the courses. Those who attended six hours a week for three months and took the final examination received a certificate. This is just a taste of Turkish, of course. While some were content with this, others continued to learn. We also organized a short film competition at the end of 2021 and received more than 3000 applications from across the world. This high participation shows that our sphere of influence is gradually expanding," Ateş said.

No pandemic obstacle

It is noteworthy that the institute received more attention and demand last year than they expected, and it is very surprising that the interest in Turkish peaked while life was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"During the pandemic, applications for Turkish courses increased, especially online. 10,000 applications came from Italy alone. While demand in the past mostly came from the Middle East and Central Asia, during the pandemic, requests came from places we never expected, such as South America, Europe and the Far East. For example in Malaysia, a group of 10,000 Turkish students was established," Ateş said.

When asked if it was difficult to respond quickly to the increasing demand during the pandemic that caught everyone off guard, Ateş said, the secret is hidden in a trait that Turks have: practical thinking and the ability to find practical solutions and take immediate action in the face of rapid problems.

"(The pandemic) was also a cultural threat. Large institutes were stunned by the pandemic and had difficulty adapting. Century-old institutions have just begun to do the work that we did during those difficult days. We didn't get stuck like them because the Turkish culture is such that when a problem is encountered we can produce a solution immediately. Normally an average of 5,000 people received our education face-to-face. This figure reached 125,000 during the pandemic with the opportunity of distance education. It is very pleasing for our country to reach so many people in one year," Ateş said.

According to Ateş, there is another pleasing development. Interest in Turkish was not limited to individual applications, there was also a significant increase in requests from universities. Turkish departments are opening in universities one after the next, and the Yunus Emre Institute sends Turkish instructors to those universities within the scope of its "Turcology project."

"We observe a return to Turkish among young people who grew up in Europe. There is high interest in our distance education programs in countries such as Italy and France," Ateş said.

Role of Turkish films and series

Without a doubt, Turkish films and TV series have played a great role in this interest in Turkish in recent years. However, foreigners are not just interested in Turkish because of the productions that they watch. Ateş argues that such productions automatically increase interest in Turkey, Turkish people and the Turkish family structure.

"Especially in Latin American countries, Turkish TV series and movies are an important source of motivation for learning Turkish. However, it is also possible to talk about interest resulting from motifs including family structure, bonds between people and solidarity. Awareness about Turkey is gradually increasing thanks to Turkish TV series," Ateş said, adding that ambassadors have requested that centers be opened in their countries.

"Recently, the Chilean Ambassador (to Turkey) paid (First Lady) Mrs. Emine Erdoğan a visit and asked for a Yunus Emre Institute to be established in his country. Right after I invited the ambassador and we talked. He came to Turkey 5-6 months ago. He said 'I was already following Yunus Emre and I realized that humanity needs his thoughts. Secondly, when you come, trust builds between the Turkish and Chilean people and then trade develops.' In other words, there can be no trade without trust. This is why we seek to build trust rather than create a perception or image when teaching Turkish and organizing cultural, artistic and gastronomy events," Ateş said.

The groundwork has been established for an international project.

Talking about the institute's plan for 2022, when every institution is doing their accounts for last year and rolling up their sleeves for new plans, Ateş said, "There is an issue we have been working on for several years related to the accreditation of Turkish exams. As you know, there are more than 5 million Turks in Europe alone, but is not possible for them to prove their Turkish proficiency. In many European countries, they require two foreign language certificates to get into universities. Since there is no Turkish proficiency certificate, universities are unable to evaluate their Turkish. Being able to speak Turkish is not enough. From that perspective, it will be a very valuable project. We reserved one floor of our building in Ankara-Kızılay just for this. In short, our goals for 2022 are very big."

100 centers by Republic’s centenary

Ateş further highlighted the institute's goal to reach a total of 100 centers by 2023, when Turkey will celebrate its 100th anniversary. He added that although they are far from the number with 64 centers as of now, they are working toward the goal and will have opened 10 more centers by the end of 2022.

"Opening a cultural center in a country is a difficult procedure. You either need to establish a cultural agreement between countries or an independent structure like those in the Netherlands, Belgium, America and Japan. The second goal is to popularize the Turkish language. Our self-confidence has already increased based on what we experienced in 2021. If we can reach 125,000 people with the normal working procedure, that means we can and should increase this number to 250,000 or even 500,000. Third, we will concentrate our work on certain parts of the world this year, for example, the African continent, there are more than 50 countries there. The same goes for countries in Latin America and the Far East. We are planning to focus on these three parts of the world in terms of cultural centers, activities and Turkish education."