Featured image above shows BARMM Education Minister Mohagher M. Iqbal (2nd, left) presenting a memento to Turkish member of Parliament Abdulrahim Dusak. With them are Turkiyë Ambassador Niyati Evren Akyol (2nd, right), and Third Secretary Okan Ernan (right). On Iqbal’s right is BPDA Director General Mohajirin T. Ali. (Credit: MBHTE)
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COTABATO CITY, January 23, 2026 (SDN) — Some high-ranking officials of Turkiyë have visited over the week the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), obviously showing the two parties’ collaborative and brotherly and friendly ties.
The Republic of Turkiyë is a member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
Turkish solon Abdulrahim Dusak, a member of his country’s Parliament and head of the Turkish delegation to the Parliamentary Union of the OIC (PUIC), accompanied by Turkish Embassy chief of mission Ambassador to the Philippines Niyati Evren Yakol, Third Secretary Okan Erkan, and Assistant Legislation Expert Tahir Ak, visited the Bangsamoro region today, Friday, as they paid a courtesy call on BARMM Education Minister Mohagher M. Iqbal, head of the Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE), one of the BARMM’s 15 primary ministries.
Through the visit, the visitors reaffirmed the continued support of the Turkish Government to the Bangsamoro Government, particularly in advancing the education sector.
For is it not that Turkiyë is one of the strong and consistent supporters of the Bangsamoro peace processes, notably the Philippine Government (GPH) with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in the 1990s and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) spanning from 1997 to 2014.
With the MNLF, the GPH signed on September 2, 1996, the Final Peace Agreement (FPA) after less than four years of peace talks. With MILF, the GPH forged their March 27, 2014, Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) after 17 years of protracted negotiations defined by bloodshed via major fighting and skirmishes along the way.
Education, foundation of a nation’s success
The two peace pacts brought much-needed peace and stability to a region long wracked by the MNLF and MILF’s struggle for the independence of Mindanao, which ultimately slid down to autonomy, the MNLF’s Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and the MILF’s BARMM.
The international community — countries and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) — have been in strong support of the Bangsamoro peace processes and continues until today.
Obviously, one of them is Turkiyë, a member of both the GPH-MILF peace process’s International Contact Group (ICG) and the International Monitoring Team (IMT), both vital cogs in helping out and sustaining peace and stability in the Bangsamoro region.
In the meeting held at the MBHTE Conference Hall, the Turkish delegation led by Dusak underscored their strong belief that education is the foundation of a nation’s success and expressed their readiness to support initiatives that strengthen the educational process in the BARMM.
Mohajirin T. Ali, MNSA, director general of the Bangsamoro Planning and Development Authority (BPDA), along with other MBHTE officials, joined the meeting.
The Bangsamoro region, established in 2018 by the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) to implement the 2014 CAB, is made up of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi, as well as the Special Geographic Area’s (SGA) 63 barangays or villages — now eight new municipalities — that voted “Yes” in a plebiscite in February 2019 to be under the BARMM jurisdiction.
According to the Philippine Atlas BARMM has 4,404,288 people. It has 116 municipalities: Basilan, 11 municipalities; Lanao del Sur, 39; undivided Maguindanao, 36; Sulu, 19; and Tawi-Tawi, 11. Its component cities are Cotabato (the regional center and capital) in Maguindanao; Lamitan in Basilan; and Marawi in Lanao del Sur. — EDD K. USMAN / SDN (✓)