Relations between India, Turkey going in 'nice and good direction': Turkish envoy
Dec 12, 2023
New Delhi [India], December 13 : Turkish Ambassador to India Firat Sunel said that relations between the two nations are going in a "nice and good direction. He hailed India's G20 Presidency, calling it "very successful."
While speaking to ANI, Surel noted that high-level delegations from Turkey arrived in India to attend the G20 meetings every two weeks. He recalled Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to India to attend the G20 Summit in Delhi.
On India-Turkey relations, he said, "We have our relations goes back to history. You know their roots are in the history and especially the last year, I would like to emphasize you know 2023 that was Indian Presidency for G20 very successful presidency. And almost every two weeks, we received a high- level delegation from Turkey led by ministers, deputy ministers.
"We had our Foreign Minister, we we had our President Erdogan was here and an Parliament speaker so it's multilateral events G20. But it is not just a multilateral. Each Meetings means coming together of Turkish and Indian people's Government people bureaucrats, diplomats and that our relations are going in a very nice and good direction," he added.
Erdogan arrived in New Delhi in September to attend the G20 Summit held under India's presidency. On the sidelines of the G20 Summit, he also held a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed ways to strengthen trade relations and infrastructure connections.
Speaking about Turkey's participation in the Kerala Literature Festival set to be held from January 11-14, he noted that people in India like Turkish movies and series and added that they will like Turkish literature as well. He said that eight to ten famous authors from Turkey will visit Kerala.
He said that visiting authors will meet with readers and participate in panel discussions. He made the remarks as he participated in the curtain raiser of the Kerala Literature Festival in India.
Firat Sunel said, "Turkey brings lots of things to Kerala Literature Festival. You know Turkish movies, Turkish series are very popular in India because of the commalities. We have very similar culture, for example, strong family ties and so you know, If Indian people like Turkish movies, they will also like literature because we have the same topics and so on. And for the first time in our bilateral history, Turkey is invited as guest of honor country to Kerala. So we are very excited. It will take place between 11 and 14 January and we bring so many things, for example, eight to ten famous authors from Turkey."
"They will have some lectures, they will meet with readers, they will join some panels, discussions and it will be also our 100th anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey. So that's why it's also very important. So we will have Turkish cuisine. So the visitor will be able to visit and eat Turkish food and we will have Turkish movies. We select some movies in the night at the beach, the audience will be able to watch Turkish movies and then one of the most spectacular event will be .... It's very famous and that is a big team consists of 25 people coming directly from the heart of dervish dances from Konya. So, I promise and Kerala Literature Festival also promise so many events for Indian people," he added.
