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H.E Shaikha Hala Bint Mohammad Al-Khalifa, Director of Culture & Arts Directorate, accompanied by Mr. Hani Jamal, Director of the National Theater, led a delegation from Bahrain Authority for Culture & Antiquities to participate in the 3rd GCC Culture Common Working Group meeting with the Turkish Republic Turkey, held on 12 April 2017 at the headquarters of the Turkish Ministry of Culture & Tourism, in Ankara.

H.E Shaikha Hala bin Mohammed Al Khalifa chaired the meeting, in the presence of Turkish representatives and discussed possibility of signing a Memorandum of Understanding between GCC countries, represented by H.E Shaikha Hala, and Turkey with regard to culture. They also discussed and reviewed the wording and legal framework of this Memo, and agreed to take time to study its articles and resolutions with all parties in two-months’ time limit.

Participants in this 3rd GCC-Turkey Working Team meeting to continue to promote closer cooperation and expert exchange based on reciprocity and mutual benefit with regard to culture. They also agreed that both sides will seek to implement these decisions, starting with providing the Secretariat with data regarding names of intellectuals, artists and culture figures from both GCC countries and Turkey. The later has committed to provide the Secretariat with a list of cultural institutions and local entities concerned with culture.

Both sides also discussed the mechanisms of exchanging art and culture publications, invitations to participate in cultural events held in both sides’ countries, enhancing the Turkish presence in GCC culture events. The Kingdom of Bahrain, represented by H.E Shaikha Hala, addressed an invitation to Turkey to participate in an art exhibition workshop on Calligraphy in 2018, celebrating Muharraq as the Capital of Islamic Culture.
Ultimately, it was also agreed that the Turkish side will determine the topics highlighted and determined to be studied at the Ottoman Archives, in order to facilitate research, providing the Secretariat with a high-quality copies of the selected documents by member states. An Ottoman Archives Coordination Officer will help in this regard, given that some academics and researchers from both Turkey and GCC countries would like to come together to fill the gaps in the usage area of Ottoman era archives and to help those studying the period. The team's aim would be to reveal a more comprehensive history, and to lift the language barriers in the archives. Indeed, the archives contain works written in Ottoman, Latin, Greek, Aramaic and other languages, and the lack of translations poses a challenge to researchers. H.E Shaikha Hala bin Mohammed Al Khalifa has pointed out that these meetings represent an opportunity to exchange and discuss different GCC-Turkey point of views with regard to culture, expert exchange, Turkish specialists in archaeology, heritage, restoration, museums and holding specialized workshops.