Turkey launches educational activities in Mauritania

By Felix Nkambeh and Alaattin Dogru

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s Maarif Foundation (TMV) has begun providing educational services in Mauritania after assuming control of former FETO-linked schools across the country, the foundation has announced.

TMV officially began its educational program in Mauritania this week, marking the occasion with a ceremony held in capital Nouakchott.

"We want to become a brand-name educational institution [in Mauritania]," Ahmet Turkben, a member of TMV’s board of directors, said at the event, which was attended by over 1,500 people, including a number of local officials.

The ceremony began with a recitation of verses from the Holy Quran, the Turkish and Mauritanian national anthems, and a minute of silence to honor Mauritanian martyrs and the martyrs that fell in Turkey’s July 15, 2016 defeated coup attempt.

"TMV aims to educate individuals who adhere to the values of the society they live in,” Turkben said.

“We want to become a brand-name educational institution trusted by the [Mauritanian] people to improve their knowledge and know-how for the peace and wellbeing of humanity,” he added.

“We are well aware that achieving this goal will only be possible with a qualified and well-equipped educational staff,” Turkben said.

Mehmet Bilir, Turkey’s ambassador to Mauritania, said the Turkish people under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had prevented a treacherous coup attempt on July 15 of last year, providing a lesson in democracy to the entire world.

Bilir went on to say that TMV’s planned activities in Mauritania promised to “revolutionize” the local education sector.

Tuncay Cilesiz, TMV’s regional coordinator for Africa, for his part, said Maarif’s educational activities would also serve to develop Mauritania-Turkey relations.

"The children of Mauritania are no different from our own children," he said, vowing to recruit “qualified staff” for the institution’s planned activities in the North Afrcian country.

Turkey’s Maarif Foundation is a not-for-profit public body that runs a network of schools and educational institutions abroad.

It has recently assumed control of numerous schools around the world previously run by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), which perpetrated last year’s defeated coup attempt.

According to a May report by Turkey’s intelligence agency, FETO had run some 2,800 schools and educational institutions, companies, foundations, media outlets, NGOs, hospitals and language and culture centers -- in 170 countries -- before the failed coup plot.

In the one year since its establishment, TMV has assumed control of 32 former FETO-linked schools in Somalia, Guinea, Niger, Sudan and Congo, according to figures released by the Turkish Education Ministry.