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Erciyes University in the Turkish city of Kayseri has enrolled four new students in its new Armenian language and literature program that opened this year. The new Armenian language and literature department at Turkey’s Erciyes University was the choice of four new students, though only three actually completed all the necessary registration and then one of them decided to put their education on hold. So now there are only two students studying in this new department, although with great enthusiasm, Today’s Zaman informs.

The Paper talked to the students to find why they chose this department.

“When I chose to study at the Armenian language and literature department, I was aware that Turkish-Armenian relations will be an important topic on the agenda for awhile and so I really wanted to open a path for myself. This was similar to the reasons I wanted to study Japanese. Turkey is heading forward and we need to open ourselves up further in the world. Those who graduate from departments such as Armenian and Japanese languages might be representing Turkey in the future,” one of the students, Çise Baltacı said.

Güven Karaköse, the other student, who came from Izmir to study in this new department, has similar ideas. “Nowadays we finally have real diplomatic relations with nations outside of Europe. So some people really need to be educated and have a firm grasp of the languages and cultures of those nations. And we are those people,” she said.