On our website, we will sometimes train our magnifying glass on different pages from the quarter-of-a-century long history of the PakTurk Schools. In today’s part of this series – which we will be publishing under the title, “A Page from the History” – is a recollection from February 13, 2013. On that day, a parliamentary delegation from Turkey to Pakistan had visited the PakTurk Schools.

The point that made this visit memorable was the presence of CHP Deputy Nur Serter in the delegation, rather than the then-Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Cemil Çiçek. Serter was an academic who had long distanced herself from conservative or religious people in terms of her political and world views, and even harshly criticised them. During the phase of the February 28, 1997 so-called ‘postmodern coup’, she had exerted intensive efforts to prevent female students wearing headscarves from being admitted into university campuses, and had pioneered a series of unfair and unlawful practices to that end.

This being her prior stance, Serter’s visit to the PakTurk Schools with the deputies of the ruling party AKP had wide repercussions in the Turkish media at that time. We share the news report published on www.samanyoluhaber.com at that time, as is:

Pak-Turk Schools in Pakistan hosted guests from Turkey

Pak-Turk Schools in Pakistan had important visitors from Turkey. Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Cemil Çiçek visited the Turkish school in Islamabad accompanied with the members of his delegation including CHP Istanbul Deputy Nur Serter.

Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Cemil Çiçek, CHP Istanbul Deputy Nur Serter, AK Party Ankara Deputy Reha Denemeç and MHP Ankara Deputy Tuğrul Türkeş visited the school in Islamabad.

The parliamentary delegation was welcomed with flowers by the Turkish and Pakistani students. The guests toured the school with teachers and administrators and received detailed information about the education provided.

The delegation led by Speaker Çiçek attended to the gala of the National Mathematics Olympiads organized by Pak-Turk Schools. The high-achieving students were awarded during the function.

Commenting after the award ceremony, Speaker Cemil Çiçek emphasized the brotherhood between the peoples of Pakistan and Turkey.

Çiçek said, “We are two sister countries with profound mutual ties. We hope these children, whom we congratulate here today and share their joy, will strengthen the brotherhood between our countries in the future on each day in leaps and bounds.”

The Turkish parliamentary delegation later watched the shows exclusively staged by the Pakistani students in honour of their visit. The visit concluded with students’ deep interest in the guests and applauses.