Ethiopia: Turkish institute’s math museum draws crowds

<p>By Addis Getachew and Tufan Aktas</p> <p>ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AA) – Turkey’s culture institute abroad on Thursday launched a pop-up math museum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital.</p> <p>Present at the museum opening at Addis Ababa University were Turkish Ambassador to Ethiopia Yaprak Alp and university officials, along with groups of eager students.</p> <p>Alp spoke on efforts to establish the Yunus Emre Institute in Addis Ababa, as two teachers deployed by the institute are now providing free Turkish language courses, one at Addis Ababa University and another at Wollo University.</p> <p>“Talks are ongoing between Ethiopian officials and Turkey to realize the plan,” she said.</p> <p>The institute, she said, would serve as a vehicle to bring the peoples of Turkey and Ethiopia closer together.</p> <p>Through the cultural and educational center, Ethiopians would be able to experience Turkish language, culture, cuisine, film, and arts, the ambassador said.</p> <p>The Yunus Emre Institute launched the Mobile Museum Project under the framework of the Academic and Scientific Cooperation Project of Turkey, under the auspices of the Turkish Presidency.</p> <p>Aiming to inculcate scientific skills among young people, the project has already visited 12 cities and 16 temporary shelter centers across Turkey. This is the second time the institute’s math project has come to the Ethiopian university.</p> <p> “The museum traveled across Turkey, including to refugee centers, and got a lot of interest,” curator Servet Arat told Anadolu Agency.</p> <p>“It reached more than 45,000 children” in such places as Hungary and Bosnia, he said. </p> <p>Deyassa Roba, a geography and environmental student at the university, said the displays provided “enjoyable and creative” ways of seeing things, such as the mirrors arranged to provide the illusion that one’s legs are floating.</p>