Language is an important factor for people to be able to understand each other and become friends. Nowadays, for people of different cultures to be able to understand each other through the communication of culture together with friendship, language is of great global importance. The increasing growth of international relations with Turkey and the existence of thousands of students learning Turkish indicates the deserved position of our language that will be attained in the future.

The Turkish Olympiads are the fruit of an endeavour to raise our language to its deserved position in the World and to enable it to be spoken more widely. The Olympiads have been organized since 2003 to reward those who are the best at learning Turkish and have inspired great excitement and interest in the Turkish language abroad.

The Olympiads are the final step of a long marathon run by thousands of students from all over the World. This marathon consists of many steps before the final one. The students have to pass elimination exams at class, school and finally national level. In one school year approximately ten thousand students study for these pre-selection examinations.

Students who qualify for the finals in Turkey contribute to the coalescence of different cultures orally and visually by introducing their countries and cultures with the aid of stands prepared by them in Turkish. Traditionally, every year, a special service award is given to politicians and members of the media, education and art who have served the Turkish language and culture during the Olympiad’s award ceremony.

As members of TURKCEDER, we have created a tale of what can be produced with the sincerity of the Anatolian people. We believed that from our land the power of the Turkish language would spread throughout the world. We have observed that the children who study Turkish keep out of trouble and maintain a friendly attitude.

At the beginning of one summer these children left a sweet sense of peace behind them through their reading of poems from Mevlana and Yunus Emre and the rendition of our folk songs. Could this be an indicator of the peace which is growing slowly in the hands of the new generation?