LEFKOSA, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus/ISTANBUL 

Türkiye's global news agency Anadolu signed a cooperation agreement Thursday with the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB).

The deal was signed by Anadolu's CEO Serdar Karagoz and the president of YTB, Abdullah Eren, in Lefkosa, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, where the premier tech event TEKNOFEST is being held.

Anadolu continues to serve as a global communications partner for TEKNOFEST.

In his statement, Karagoz said Anadolu is an agency that already closely follows the activities of YTB.

“YTB's activities in Central Asia, Europe and Africa are closely followed and reported by all our teams around the world.

“As Anadolu, we are also trying to increase the potential of Turkish citizens living abroad and their relatives in the field of communication under the coordination of YTB. Turks living abroad and their related communities have a very serious potential. Increasing the potential of each of them in the field of media and communication and including them in the training provided by Anadolu is of great importance for the unity and solidarity of the Turkic world,” he said.

“Local media abroad are the most important instruments to keep the Turks living in that region together. Under the coordination of YTB and in cooperation with Anadolu, such studies and collaborations will continue.”

Noting that Anadolu has been striving for more than a century to provide accurate and genuine information all over the world, YTB President Eren said they are a diaspora organization that has been providing services for citizens abroad since 2010.

He said they attach great importance to the utilization of Anadolu's capacity by citizens and compatriot communities abroad.

“Especially in Europe, we are trying to keep the Turkish-language press alive, and we say 'Language is the mirror of culture.’ We benefit a lot from Anadolu in our work for our European citizens who strive to feed the local press there with our Turkish language. In addition to this, we have a wide media network in the Balkans, the Middle East and the Turkic world, which uses both Turkish in Türkiye and Turkish in general, and which makes journalism in Turkish.”

Eren emphasized that as YTB, they have been providing state support to the local media for 10 years, and in this context, especially capacity building programs are very important for them.

Emphasizing that they occasionally host cognates who publish Turkish newspapers and magazines in Macedonia, Kosovo, Western Thrace and Bulgaria for training in Türkiye, Eren said that “Anadolu provides them with vocational training in this context. Hopefully, we will continue this with this protocol as we have done so far.”

He highlighted that they currently host more than 15,000 international students from 185 countries around the world for undergraduate, graduate and doctoral education in Türkiye.

He said these students include those studying in journalism and radio and television departments.

“Anadolu, with its competent staff, provides training to our young brothers and sisters coming from different countries of the world. I think there will be a new training program around the end of May.

“Especially in recent years, we have started to bring many students from Africa. We have graduates who work as reporters and editors at important newspapers in Africa. We also try to bring them together with Anadolu,” he said. Therefore, it is a cooperation process with many different aspects,” he said.

“We would like to thank Anadolu for its interest in and concern for our citizens abroad, and for its technical training and services for our cognates and related communities.”