The Turkish government is ready to fund a Turkish language and literature centre building at Delhi's Jamia Millia Islamia if the university makes such a request, Ambassador Burak Akçapar said.
Jamia is the only university in India to offer a bachelor's degree course in the Turkish language under its Faculty of Humanities and Languages but staff and students are constrained by a lack of space and facilities.
Constructing a separate building would allow the university to expand its Turkish programmes that have become popular with students, said Mohsin Ali, coordinator of the Turkish Language and Literature Programme at Jamia.
About 180 students are enrolled in the BA (Hons.) and various diploma courses in Turkish at the university.
Speaking on Tuesday at a conference organised jointly by University of Kashmir, Turkish organisation Ilem and Jamia's Turkish language department, the ambassador said Turkey is keen to provide funding for a new Turkish language facility.
"How can say I no?" he told Ali, acknowledging the huge interest in the Turkish language courses being offered since 2006.
Jamia awarded its first BA degrees in Turkish in 2015 and now there is a plan to introduce a master's degree course and provide more seats in other programmes.
"We would like to receive a formal proposal from the university about its requirements. Once we get that, Turkey will be able to decide quickly," Akçapar later told BW Businessworld.
The ambassador said Turkey also wants to open its cultural centre Yunus Emre Institute in New Delhi and is awaiting the Indian government's permission.
Both India and Turkey should open cultural centres in view of their growing bilateral relations, the ambassador said.
"So many countries have their cultural centres in India. Turkey would also like to open one," he said.
The factors fuelling interest in Turkish include not only students looking to acquire academic qualifications but there's also a desire to learn new language skills that would help them in the global job market, according to Ali.
There has been tremendous growth in the India-Turkey trade and tourism exchange over the years.
Turkey has proposed to India to start talks for a "Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement" (CEPA) to further grow their business ties.
"We encourage and invite Indian companies to invest more in Turkey and make use of our investment promotion arrangements which were introduced under Turkey's new investment incentive system," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during his visit to India in August.
India is Turkey's second largest trading partner in the Asia-Pacific region after China.
Bilateral trade grew more than six-fold between 2003 and 2014 from $1.2 billion to $7 billion.
There are 14 Turkish Airlines and seven Turkish Airlines Cargo flights from Istanbul to New Delhi and Mumbai. About 130,000 Indian tourists visited Turkey in 2015.
Some 200 Indian companies operate in Turkey, while many Turkish business groups are exploring opportunities in India.
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