Turkish Embassy in Dhaka has celebrated the essence of Bangladeshi cuisine and music with a musical soiree and dinner at the Turkish Residence. The ‘musical encounter’ was part of a series of 'encounters' or engagements in different categories organised by the Embassy and initiated by Turkish Ambassador to Bangladesh Mustafa Osman Turan. The evening was a means of appreciating the food and music of Bangladesh and also showing a glimpse of it to those who are not as familiar with either. Also read: Turkish citizen who arrived at Shahjalal does not have monkeypox The event held on Friday was preceded by other similar chapters as culinary encounters and Sufi encounters as a means to fortify the affiliation between Bangladesh and Turkey through meaningful experiences. The programme featured classical recitals of sarod and tabla, followed by renditions of songs of Rabindranath Tagore. The menu had a range of flavourful Bangladeshi dishes, including mutton kacchi and wrapping up with the comfort of traditional sweets. Also read: Turkish envoy meets Fakhrul, talks about next polls

Honouring the influential role of Bangladeshi women in the society, the Turkish Embassy in Dhaka, in partnership with Bangladesh-Turkey Business Platform, organized an exceptional event at the Garden of the Turkish Residence, Baridhara on the International Women’s Day. The event showcased a unique combination of an engaging conversation session, live music, dance and an art exhibition jointly organized with the Gallery Cosmos and participated by seven leading Bangladeshi artists: Farida Zaman, Kanak Chanpa Chakma, Afrozaa Jamil Konka, Maqsuda Iqbal Nipa, Nazia Andaleeb Preema, Bishwajit Goswami and Sourav Chowdhury. The conversation session was facilitated by Dhaka Lit Fest director Sadaf Saaz, combined with a mesmerizing acoustic musical session by popular singer-musician and activist Farzana Wahid Shayan, a poetry recitation session by eminent actress-choreographer Naila Azad in which she recited two poems penned by two Turkish poets, complemented with a dance recital by Umma Habiba and Yasin Arafat. A number of prolific personalities including the newly appointed vice-chancellor of the Asian University for Women (AUW) in Chattogram Dr Rubana Huq, social activist Khushi Kabir, the first Bangladeshi film screened in the 'Un Certain Regard' section of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival ‘Rehana Maryam Noor’ - famed actress Azmeri Haque Badhan, and many other prominent personalities participated in the conversation, sharing their journeys while simultaneously shedding the spotlight on several important socio-economic issues. Talking about the event, Turkish Ambassador to Bangladesh Mustafa Osman Turan described the motif and the overall programme, marking the special occasion of International Women's Day 2022. READ: International Women’s Day: Google doodle honours firsts in women’s history "We are organising this International Women's Day event at our Turkish Embassy as a part of our series of cultural events, which we call our year-long 'Cultural Encounters'. So we started last December with the 'Sufi Encounters,' which was a big success because we tried to highlight our shared value of Sufism. We started here in the embassy, then we went to Sylhet, then Chittagong and then Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, so our artists who came from Turkey, collaborated with local artists."

Turkey resumed its passenger flights with Bangladesh on Saturday, after nearly nine weeks of suspension. According to the Turkish Embassy in Dhaka, passengers will now be able to board the flights of Turkish Airlines and that of others to travel from Bangladesh to Turkey. The passengers travelling from Bangladesh will have to submit their negative PCR test results taken 72 hours before their arrival to Turkey. If people – travelling from Bangladesh or those who have been in the country for the last 14 days – can prove that they were vaccinated with a minimum of two doses of vaccines which have been granted emergency use authorisation by either the World Health Organisation (WHO) or Turkey (two doses of Sinovac, BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Moderna, Sinopharm; one dose of Johnson & Johnson) and 14 days have passed since the application of the last dose, will be exempted from quarantine during their entry into Turkey. Read: US-Bangla to resume flights on Dhaka-Chennai route from Sunday