20 win Bangladesh-Turkey friendship competition awards

By Md. Kamruzzaman

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) - Twenty teenage Bangladeshi students were awarded prizes on Monday at the Bangladesh-Turkey Friendship Art Competition in Dhaka.

Three of the winners -- Sabah Bintay Baizid, Sidratul Muntaha and SM Abtahinoor -- will be given tours around Turkey sponsored by the Turkish government learn more closely about the country, authorities said.

"This is one of the first steps to enhance bilateral friendship and brotherhood between Turkey and Bangladesh," said Turkish Ambassador Devrim Ozturk while addressing the prize distribution ceremony in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka on Monday evening.

He underlined the historical roots of relations between the Muslim-majority countries, adding that their ties would strengthen in the coming days through better mutual understanding.

Such competitions would allow young people of both nations to share more with each other and take existing brotherhood to a new heights, he said.

The competition was co-sponsored by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) and the Bangladeshi National Academy for Children, or Shishu Academy.

"All 20 awarded paintings will be displayed in TIKA’s Ankara office so that Turkish people are made aware of how the new generation in Bangladesh feel about Turkey," said TIKA Coordinator Ismail Gundogdu.

He said hundreds of teenage students between 9 and 13 years old took part in the competition and that all depicted different aspects of the Turkey-Bangladesh friendship.

"This shows that Bangladeshi teenagers regard Turkey with love and passion and that we also feel the same way about Bangladesh," Gundogdu added.

Shishu Academy Chairman Selina Hossain thanked Turkish authorities for holding such a program for Bangladeshi students: "This will help cement future ties between both states more solidly."

On behalf of the awardees, the first prize winner Baizid said that she loved Turkey and Turkish President Erdogan very much.

"I am so happy as I am going to visit Turkey," she said.