Turkish MP confirms plans for official Azerbaijani school in Istanbul

Turkish MP, head of the Türkiye-Azerbaijan interparliamentary friendship group Samil Ayrim has announced the plans to open an official Azerbaijani school in Istanbul.

This school will align with the Turkish educational system, ensuring compatibility and high standards, Caliber.Az reports citing the local media.

Ayrim emphasised the importance of providing legal and official educational opportunities for Azerbaijani children and grandchildren living in Istanbul.

"We have rendered and continue rendering support for children and grandchildren of our compatriots to be able to live and receive education in Istanbul on a legal basis," he stated.

Currently, several Azerbaijani schools operate unofficially in Istanbul. However, the establishment of an official Azerbaijani school reflects the strong allied relations between the two fraternal countries.

"An Azerbaijani school will operate in Istanbul officially soon, as befits the allied relations of the two fraternal countries," Ayrim added.

Earlier, Ankara and Baku signed an agreement to establish the Türkiye-Azerbaijan University which will bring Turkish higher education experience to the Azerbaijani capital. With the deal signed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, finalized, Erol Özvar, the head of Türkiye’s Council of Higher Education (YÖK), and Azerbaijani Education Minister Emin Emrullayev inked a memorandum of understanding at a ceremony held at the Presidential Complex in the capital Ankara.

The university will be operational within this year, Özvar stated, noting that the most important feature of the project is to gather the programs of Türkiye’s most established universities under the roof of one university at the same time.

This new model will include associate, undergraduate and graduate programs of well-established Turkish universities to be determined by YÖK.

The YÖK head shared that the students who complete the programmes will receive a diploma from the Turkish university.