The Gobabeb Research and Training Centre in the Namib Desert received a Suzuki Gypsy bakkie from the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) on Tuesday. [...] TIKA representative Abdulkadir Abukan mentioned that in 2016, Turkey was named as the most generous country for foreign aid per GDP, donating almost US $6.2 billion internationally. “We are very impressed by the work being done at Gobabeb. We are especially happy to be able to assist, in this way, in the work being done to help train the next generation of Namibian scientists,” said Abukan.

World-renowned Turkish pianist İdil Biret is set to perform the works of famous Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff at his house-turned-museum in Tambov, Russia on July 15. Anadolu University State Conservatory academic Amine Aygistova confirmed the news to Anadolu Agency. [...] Thanks to the concert, the relationship between the two countries will improve further, hoped Aygistova.

Yunus Emre Institute, which was established with the aim of promoting Turkish language, culture and art and increasing cultural exchange between Turkey and other countries, has started operating in Washington DC after the first center was opened in Maryland, U.S. last April.

A cargo vessel carrying 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid en route for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip left a Turkish port yesterday. [...] In recent years, Turkey stepped up its international humanitarian outreach, making it onto a list of most generous countries in 2015 and 2016 as it spent $6.5 billion on humanitarian aid, a high figure compared to the country's gross national income. During the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Turkish aid agencies reached millions of people across the world with food aid.

The ambassadors of countries with embassies in Turkey attended an iftar (fast-breaking) dinner Tuesday evening hosted by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in the capital Ankara. [...] Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to Turkey, whose country spearheaded efforts to isolate Qatar over what it calls support for extremists, was seated near Qatari Ambassador as both envoys briefly engaged in a warm conversation, according to a journalist from Hürriyet daily who attended the dinner.

Turkey has started to use public diplomacy in its modern sense and as a state policy for the first time during the AK party era. [...] In addition, TIKA (Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency) the first soft power institution of Turkey (opened in the 1990s), has been restructured in order to adapt to public diplomacy. [...] The Yunus Emre Institute, which was opened in 2009, has started to carry out the cultural diplomacy activities of public diplomacy. In this respect, Turkish foreign policy has also opened up to the cultural and social fields.