The Presidency of Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB) organized a training program for alumni associations of students who graduated from Turkish universities. The event held in Podgorica, Montenegro on Monday, was a follow-up to last year’s capacity-building program for alumni associations held in the Turkish capital Ankara.

Members of the alumni associations from Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania, Ukraine and Kosovo underwent training as part of the event.

Speaking at the event, YTB President Abdullah Eren said the presidency had granted scholarships to nearly 40,000 students as part of its Turkey Scholarships program since 2011. He noted that the alumni benefited from scholarships started setting up associations in their countries and this eventually led to Alumni Meets events which first started in 2017. “Since then, we held events with alumni from 51 countries,” he said. Currently, 30 countries host alumni associations. Eren said these associations would be instrumental in developing relations between Turkey and those countries.

The scholarship program, specifically designed for international students and researchers, with its all-encompassing scholarship provisions and services, is a gateway to education in the country. What makes the program unique is its provision of university and program placement as part of its scholarship application. The program was created to bring together different scholarships provided by different state agencies under one roof. This year, more than 155,000 people from 171 countries applied for scholarships.