As a part of “Be Our Guest” project, president of Yunus Emre Institute Prof. Dr. Şeref Ateş came together with Chinese journalists and social media representatives came to Turkey, in Istanbul.

Making evaluations to AA reporter within visit President of Institute Ateş mentioned after July 15 coup attempt of Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), Turkey’s perception negatively affected in international area.

Stating that with the aim of turning this perception into positive, a new project was initiated in 2017 with “Be our guest, let’s write the future together” slogan Prof. Dr. Ateş said groups effect society and particularly accepted by target countries such as social media stars, media managers and representatives and academicians are hosted in Turkey. Indicating that these visits have serious effects Ateş said, “While at the end of 2017 Turkey is mentioned with subjects such as ‘terror, PKK, ISID, Syria’ in China, as a consequence of 5 trips within the project, there is now contents such as ‘Istanbul, romantics, Cappadocia, powerful nation.’ It is possible to see outcomes of the project concretely.”

Also reminding that 2018 year is “Turkey year” in China Ateş said during travels of the guests came to Turkey with official permission; they have the opportunity to observe touristic, economic, scientific capacity and technical developments in Turkey on site and also to meet with specialists in their field. Indicating that thanks to this interaction, every day in China hundreds of news is shared in their own media and hence perception of Turkey becomes positive, Prof Dr. Ateş said, “Last year 250 thousand Chinese came to our country, this year it is reached to 500 thousand people. Our aim is to reach 1 million target before the end of year.”

After meeting with the delegation consisting of leading journalists and social media representatives in China, a cooperation protocol was signed between Yi Dian-Zixun has 580 million users and the Institute.

The protocol signed between President of Yunus Emre Institute Prof. Dr. Şeref Ateş and PR Director of Yi Dian-Zixun, Liu Wei includes promotional activities for tourism, history, culture and art of Turkey, supporting of cooperation between Chinese and Turkish media, mutual hosting of important names from two countries and collaborating within advantages of two countries.