More than 500,000 Turkish nationals went to various European nations since 2004 as part of broad range of Erasmus programs, said Ambassador Faruk Kaymakçı, who is also the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director for EU Affairs.
“We have sent more than half a million of our citizens to especially Western European nations with a various Erasmus programs. Those include undergraduate students, academics, teachers, apprentices and volunteers. We also received a lot of European students as well,” Kaymakçı said at a meeting with member nations of the Erasmus student exchange program.
Kaymakçı said ambassadors from these nations would discuss new means to increase the numbers of students participating in the program and ways to ease visa requirements.
“We wanted to discuss developments in the Erasmus program with ambassadors from participating nations. We especially want visa requirements to be eased for our students,” he said, adding that Turkish nongovernmental organizations across Europe would also be brought on board to further enrich the program.