Turkey celebrates 86th National Day at luncheon reception

Charge d’Affaires and Mrs. Orhan Yalman Okan of the Republic of Turkey hosted a luncheon reception at the Hotel Shilla in Seoul on Oct. 29, 2009 to celebrate the 86th anniversary of the Proclamation of the Republic of Turkey. It was a beautiful day with comfortable temperature and many of the guests enjoyed the fresh air at the inner garden of the Emerld Room as well as inside.

The celebration began with the National Anthem of the Republic of Korea followed by the National Anthem of the Republic of Turkey.
Turkey is a special country to Korea as the country was among the countries sending the largest number of combat troops to Korea to fight on the side of the Republic of Korea Army for the defense of freedom and democracy from the North Korean and Chinese invasion forces. Speaking to the guests, Charge d’Affaires Okan said that Korea and his country shared a special relationship of cooperation in that Turkey, in addition to its sending combat personnel to Korea during the Korean War, maintained close ties of cooperation in the economic and various other fields. He particularly noted that Korea was the second largest trade partner of Turkey in the Northeast Asian region.

The speech was beautifully interpreted by the Korean lady staffer of the Turkish Embassy for the benefit of the Korean guests. Beside her was a little young lady, obviously the daughter of an Embassy personnel, who wore beautiful Koran Hanbok and attracted the attention of the guests.



Among the guests in attendance from Korean society were National Assemblywomen Cho Bae-Sook (DP) and Lee Yong-Kyung (Creative Korea Party), Chairmen Kap-Chong Chi of the UN Korean War Allies Association and

 

Lee Kyung-sik of The Korea Post, President Hwijae Lee of Korea Importers Association, Professors Kenny Y.S. Seung of Kyung Hee University (concurrently president of Insulation Korea) and Chong-Jin Oh of Hankuk University of Foreign Affairs, President Dal-Suck Choi of LS Trading Co.



From the Seoul Diplomatic Corps came many ambassadors accompanied by their wives and other senior diplomats, including military attaches. Among them were Ambassadors Vitali V. Fen of Uzbekistan (dean of Seoul Diplomatic Corps), Soukthavone Keola of the Lao Republic, Issam Mostapha of Lebanon, Murad Ali of Pakistan, Skand Ranjan Tayal of India, Mohamed Salah Eldin
Abbas of Sudan, Rabah Hadid of Algeria, Chua Thai Keong of Singapore, Abdulla Muhammad Al Maainah of the United Arab Emirates, Muteb Al-Mutoteh of Kuwait and Dato Haji Harun Haji Isamail of Brunei Darussalam.
There also were Mission Heads Mustafa M. Taufik of Iraq and Masaoud Alghali of Libya, and Counsellor Khalid A. Abel of Qatar.



Here are excerpts from the speech of Charge d'Affaires Orhan Yalman Okan of the Republic of Turkey:

H.E. Mrs. Jo Be Suk, Member of Parliament
Mr. Ambassadors
Esteemed colleagues
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen,

Today, Turkey is celebrating the 86th anniversary of her foundation, which took place on Oct. 29, 1923, in the aftermath of the Indepence War under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey.
The Republic of Turkey has been pursuing, since its establishment, a peaceful, realistic and consistent foreign policy guided by the principle “Peace at Home and Peace Abroad” set out by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Turkey conducts a foreign policy that is a generator of security and stability in its region and beyond based on its democratic and secular political system, vibrant economy and its tradition of reconciling modernity with its cultural identity.
Turkey attaches great importance to her relations with the Republic of Korea. We would like to furhther develop and diversify our existing good relations in every field with Korea.
The Turkish and the Korean peoples are bound to eachother with friendship ties deepened especially with the participation of Turkey to the Korean War.
Taking this opportunity, I would like to commemorate the memories of the brave Turkish soldiers as weel as the courageous South Korean soldiers and the entire United Nations’ forces who fought in the Korean War.
Korea is the second largest trade partner of Turkey in east Asia. Our bilateral trade volume reached 4,5 billion US Dolars in 2008.

Almost 150 Korean companies have operations in Turkey as of 2009. The figure of Korean investments has already gone beyond 300 million US Dolars. Leading Korean companies such as Hyundai, LG and KT&G have investments in Turkey.

A Free Trade Agreement between Turkey and Korea will further contribute to enhance our economic and trade relations as weel as liberalize our bilateral trade. To this end, we hope the inter governmental negotiations will commence in 2010. With the concluding the Free Trade Agreemen, I believe our bilateral trade volume will exceed 10 billion US Dolars in mid-term.

The culturel dimension of our relations emanated from the solidarity spirit of the Korean War, is also very much important for us.

Tourism is also a potential field that two countries could further cooperate. The number of Korean tourists visiting Turkey has been constantly increasing during the course of the last decade. We believe that more than 130.000 Korean tourists will visit Turkey in 2009.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Korea, H.E. Mr. Yu Myung-hwan is expected pay an official visit to Turkey this year upon the invitation of Turkish Foreign Minister, H.E. Mr. Ahmet Davutoğlu.

Our President, H.E. Mr. Abdullah Gül is also expected to visit Korea in 2010 upon the invitation of the President of Korea, H.E. Mr. Lee Myung-bak.

The Prime Minister of Turkey, H.E. Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected the join the G-20 Summit which will be held in Seoul in November 2010.

I hope those expected mutual high level official visits will further contribute to enhance and deepen our existing excellent relations.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to conclude by expressing my best wishes for the prosperity and well-being of the friendly people of Korea and further cementing of our close relations between our two nations.

Thank you for being with us today.