The Head of the Mission of Portugal in Astana, José de Castro Ataíde Amaral, took part in the celebration of Portugal National Day at Turan University

On June10, 2025, the Head of the PortugueseMissioninAstanaMr.JosédeCastroAtaídeAmaralvisitedTuranUniversity,where he tookpartin a meetingdedicated to the Day of Portugal, Camões and the PortugueseCommunities. The celebration of Portugal’s NationalDayatTuranUniversitywas timed to coincide with asignificantevent– the opening of the HonoraryConsulate of PortugalinAlmaty. The meetingon the NationalDay of Portugalwithrepresentatives of diplomaticmissionsinAlmaty,teachers,researchersandstudents was openedbytheDirector of the Center for RegionalStudies, Professor Ablet K. Kamalov.TheHead of the Mission of Portugal inAstana, Mr.JosédeCastroAtaídeAmaral,congratulatedon the PortugalDay, talked about the history of celebration of the national holiday of Portugal, andfocusedon the developing relations between PortugalandKazakhstan.ProfessorA.T. Mukhambedyarova, Director of the HigherSchool of InternationalRelationsandDiplomacy of TuranUniversity, congratulatedallparticipants of the meeting on theNationalDay of Portugal.

The centralevent of the meetingwas a lecture by Dr.AntonioEduardo Mendonça, Professor of the Lisbon University entitled “Portugal2025: a SocialPortrait”.Inhislecture, Prof. Mendonça discussed the mainparameters of the development of twocountries, examined the issues of demographyand the particular features of migrationprocessesinPortugal.Hesaidthatcurrentlyabout1,000peoplefromKazakhstanand2,000peoplefromUzbekistanliveinPortugal.ProfessorAntonioEduardo Mendonça is a long-time partner of TuranUniversity:as a visitingprofessor, heparticipatedin the internationalproject“NewSocialHistory of CentralAsia:WritingHistory from ‘below’”,which was heldatTuranUniversityin2010-2013. He was a co-organizer of the Internationalconference“The Future of MigrationinEurasia”(October2023),participatedin the AnnualConference of the CentralEurasianStudiesSociety(CESS)inJune2024andtheIIIInternationalConference“At the Crossroads of Cultures:Jews of CentralAsiaand the Caucasus”recentlyheldattheCenter for RegionalStudies of TuranUniversity.

The lecture by Professor Antonio Eduardo Mendonça aroused great interest among the participants of the meeting, who took an active part in discussing the state and prospects of cooperation between Kazakhstan and Portugal. The meeting was attended by the Consul of Poland in Almaty Mr. Dariusz Szewczyk, Professor of AlmaU University Alberto Frigero, Professor of the Kazakh-German University R.R. Burnashev, Associate Professor of Turan University B.A. Yeserkemisova, BA and MA students of International Relations of Turan University and Al-Farabi Kazakh National University.