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22:04 GMT
ANKARA, Jan 7 (KUNA) -- Russia's National Research Nuclear University has decided to cancel its scholarship programs for Turkish students, head of Ankara University's Nuclear Sciences Institute Niyazi Meric said Thursday.
The program was based on a bilateral agreement stipulating that Russia would help Turkey build the Akkuyu nuclear station in the southern Mersin province, AA news agency quoted Meric as saying.
The two Turkish Russian universities were bound by an agreement to upgrade the workforce of Akkuyu nuclear station while Turkey's Hacettepe Universities and Istanbul Technical University undertook to implement scientific, educational and social research programs, he pointed out.
Under the Turkish-Russian agreement, signed in April, Turkish master degree holders received further education in Ankara for six months and were scheduled to spend another year of schooling in Russia, Meric went on.
Ankara University is seeking an alternative partner in nuclear education for nearly 1,000 engineers who attended the scholarship program with Russia, he added.
The Akkuyu nuclear station, a Turkish-Russian joint venture costing some USD 20 billion, is expected to go operational in 2020 and fully operational three years later.
The cancellation of the scholarship program is an apparent response to the downing of a Russian Su-24 fighter plane near the Turkish borders on November 24. (end)
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