“Today we live in a world full of serious challenges. Many of these affect our countries in varying levels. But I feel the need to especially underline one of them, since it consumes innocent lives, causing enormous damage in Turkey and Sri Lanka. That is terrorism said Turkish President Abdullah Gul in his speech at the banquet hosted in honour of President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Presidential Palace in Ankara last night (December 02).

“Turkey and Sri Lanka are two countries that suffered greatly from terrorism. Turkey is against any kind of terrorist act, whatever the reason is. We believe that no terrorist action can be justified on any grounds. We attach utmost importance to bilateral and multilateral cooperation in dealing with this threat,”

Speech by President Abdullah Gul of Turkey:

“Your visit to Turkey is indeed historical. We know that our nations established contact in the distant past. What started as mainly commercial interaction sowed seeds of an affinity towards each other and led to a more diverse relationship in time.

There is no doubt in my mind that Your Excellency’s personal involvement has played the most important role in the flourishing of our relations in recent years.

“The geo-political, commercial and cultural importance of your beautiful country was already recognized by other states centuries ago. I am proud to say that we were among them. As the “Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon” which was published in 1907 puts it:

“ ‘The number of foreign consuls established at Colombo is evidence of its importance as a shipping centre and port of call. All the important powers have representatives there, whilst in addition, the USA, Austria-Hungary and Turkey have Consulates in Galle’. “

“.The Turkish Vice-Consul in Colombo, Mohamed Markar Efendi and the Turkish Consul in Galle, Ibrahim Didi were among the pioneers in this regard.
“I am confident that Your Excellency’s visit to Turkey today will be remembered as a landmark in the future, as this is the first ever Presidential visit from Sri Lanka to Turkey.

“Apart from being a watershed in history, Your visit will also bring fresh dynamism to our efforts aimed at strengthening ties between the two nations and open new avenues for better cooperation.

“In this vein, I would like to underline the fact that we have the political will to deepen and diversify our relations with Sri Lanka in all fields.

“In our meeting today, we have taken up bilateral relations, discussed our cooperation in the multilateral fora and exchanged views on several regional and global challenges.

“The bilateral agreements that we signed, with others to come in the near future, will soon complete the legal framework of our relations. We see a great potential in many areas, ranging from tourism to development projects.In our opinion the total volume of bilateral trade is far from being satisfactory. The same can be said of our people-to-people contacts and cultural and tourism activities. We believe much can be done to remedy this situation.

“Today we live in a world full of serious challenges. Many of these affect our countries in varying levels. But I feel the need to especially underline one of them, since it consumes innocent lives, causing enormous damage in Turkey and Sri Lanka. That is terrorism.

“Turkey and Sri Lanka are two countries that suffered greatly from terrorism. Turkey is against any kind of terrorist act, whatever the reason is. We believe that no terrorist action can be justified on any grounds. We attach utmost importance to bilateral and multilateral cooperation in dealing with this threat,”

“I am confident that Your visit will give a new impetus to our mutual relations to deepen the bilateral relations between our two friendly countries.”