ORASAM President Assoc. Dr. Yunus Emre GÜRBÜZ attended the Fourth General Assembly of the Turkic Universities Association.

The former General Coordinator of TURKUNIB, ORASAM President Assoc. Dr. GÜRBÜZ represented the Kyrgyzstan-Turkey Manas University, at the General Assembly held on April 24, 2019 at the Kazakh National Akhmet Yassawi International Kazakh-Turkish University in Turkestan, Kazakhstan.

In the opening speech of the General Assembly, the Secretary General of the Turkish Council Baghdad Amreyev informed the participants about the ongoing cooperation process between the member states in the field of education and underlined the importance of higher education in unifying the peoples of the Turkic World. Referring to the instructions given by the heads of state at the previous summits, the Secretary General informed the Secretariat about concrete projects developed in cooperation with members of the Turkic Universities Association, such as Orkhon Exchange Program, Turkic Universities Association Sports Games, Students Council and Culture and Art Festival. He added that he believes that the results of the General Assembly will contribute to cooperation and development in the field of higher education.

During the meeting, the parties agreed to lift the restrictions of the section restriction to strengthen the capacity of the Orkhon Exchange Program. Previously, only the students of the Department of International Relations, Political Science and Turkology were able to benefit from this program. In order to ensure a better coordination between the universities of the Turkic Speaking Countries, the participants of the General Assembly also discussed the mutual recognition and equivalence of educational documents and academic degrees. The parties also decided to establish a research group on science and renovation with the e-learning platform. The second TURKUNIB Sports Games, first one was launched by Kyrgyzstan-Turkey Manas University, has agreed to be hosted during 2020 Nevruz celebrations at Ahmet Yesevi University with the support of the World Ethnosport Confederation.

At the meeting, Gazi University, Nigde University Halisdemir Omar and Cappadocia University in Turkey and the University of Szeged in Hungary were accepted as new members of the TURKUNIB.

TURKUNIB had 18 universities, three from Azerbaijan and five members from each country, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey who are the members of the Turkic Council. With the last General Assembly, three more universities, one of them is from Hungary, were accepted to the Union and the number reached 21.

On April 19, 2018, in III. General Assembly organized at KTMU, by reorganizing the article on membership to the Union, members of the Turkic Council other than the member countries had been opened to take TURKUNIB, as well as Hungary.

TURKUNIB presidency, during the II. General Assembly of Turkic Universities Association of the Turkic Council held on 12 April 2016, hosted by Atatürk University, passed to KTMU and after the activities carried out under the presidency of KTMU, Prof. Dr.Sebahattin BALCI, on April 19, 2018, the presidency was transferred to Hoca Ahmet Yesevi International Kazakh-Turkish University. During the presidency of KTMU, following the preparation of the logo and website for the Union to gain institutional status, “I. Turkic Universities Association Sports Games”was held with 272 participants from 11 universities, “Orkhon Exchange Program Directive” prepared and exchange program started, an award directive was prepared for the support of successful scientists in the Turkic World, within the framework of three projects, “Turkic World Tourism Guide”, “After 25 Years of Experience, Mutual Relations and Collaborations in Turkic Council Countries” and and “Joint Citizenship Education in the Turkic World” books were published and submitted to the Turkic Council and the activities of the Student Council were carried out.