Directorate of the Turkish Institute of History organized a five-day visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina for 50 history teachers from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, all in order to meet with their Bosnian colleagues to exchange experiences and visit historical landmarks throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The aim of the project Education workshop on the history of BiH is to raise the awareness of future generations of teachers about the methods of education and training, the protection of national consciousness and the contribution to the creation of better younger generations.
The delegation is led by the president of the Turkish Institute of History, Birol Cetin, and the Minister of Education of the Republic of Northern Cyprus, Nazim Cavusoglu.
On July 4, 2022, a program was held at the International University in Sarajevo (IUS) to promote the project Education workshop on the history of BiH.
On that occasion, Cetin pointed out that the visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina was realized as the fifth instance of the experience exchange project and that it previously included visits to different locations in the Republic of Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
"The Turkish Institute of History is an institution that searches for the truth and writes accurate history. It has been doing this for 92 years based on the direction given to us by Ataturk (Mustafa Kemal, op.a.) as our founder," said Cetin.
He also said that with various programs they work to make people love history and research. He added that the Ottoman language course has been running for four months as part of the program.
"Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus lived through similar things and massacres in the period when humanity lost its values, and the states, which claimed to be civilized, were completely silent about it. There, as always, there were some double standards and hypocritical treatment, and in both cases the United Nations was also involved," said Cetin.
Emphasizing that one cannot constantly talk about massacres, Cetin said that they must not be allowed to be forgotten, and announced the continuation of such projects organized by the Turkish Institute of History.
The Minister of Education of the Republic of Northern Cyprus Mr. Nazim Cavusoglu, pointed out that this program was a visit of a technical nature and part of a project to strengthen cultural and historical ties. He also stated that it was an opportunity for historians to see with their own eyes the similarities in the events in these two countries.
"We in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus are trying to teach our history and tell our truth to all our Turkish friends. In addition, we try to tell objective historians about the massacres our children suffered in 1974. We got chills during this visit. Regions are different, but tears are always the same color, people were killed," Cavusoglu said.
Teacher Hasan Zaimagaoglu from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus said that he was moved by the visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina and the meeting with local colleagues.
"We had the opportunity here to see the most beautiful works of Ottoman culture and civilization. Yesterday we went to visit Srebrenica and it was an emotionally difficult moment considering the crimes that happened there. We hope that this will never happen again anywhere," said Zaimagaoglu.
From July 1, the delegation visited a number of localities in Sarajevo, Konjic, Mostar, Blagaj, Travnik and Srebrenica.
Source: https://www.aa.com.tr/ba/balkan/delegacija-turskog-zavoda-za-historiju-…
