Türkiye Ambassador to Turkmenistan Togan Oral hosted a briefing for the Turkmen and foreign media

Highlights

In 2023, it is expected that the bilateral trade between Turkmenistan and Türkiye will approach US $ 3 billion
During the visit of National Leader Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov to Türkiye in November 2021, the parties set a goal to increase the volume of trade to US $ 5 billion
More than 100 participants from the Turkish side will take part in the expo of Turkish export goods in Ashgabat in early December
Ankara seeks to include Turkmenistan in the megatechnological corridor that stretches from Istanbul to Baku
The idea of supplying electricity from Turkmenistan to Türkiye was positively received by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
The 100th anniversary of the Republic of Türkiye is a great date not only for the residents of Türkiye, but also for all fraternal peoples

On Saturday, October 28, Ambassador of Türkiye to Ashgabat Togan Oral made statements at a press conference with representatives of Turkmen and foreign media on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Republic of Türkiye and the first official visit of President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov to Türkiye.

Here is slightly paraphrased translation of Ambassador Togan Oral’s speech:

Dear friends, welcome,

First of all, thank you for responding to our invitation on this festive day.

As you know, on 25-26 October 2023, the President of Turkmenistan, Mr. Serdar Berdimuhamedov, paid an official visit to Türkiye. I accompanied the President during this visit, so I would like to share with you information about this important visit in the midst of events, and that is why we are gathered here today.

Of course, another important event is the centenary of our Republic, which we will celebrate with enthusiasm tomorrow. The coincidence of these two important events on the same day is really a reason for joy. I would like to start with the President’s visit to Türkiye.

Mr. Serdar Berdimuhamedov has already traveled to Türkiye once to attend the swearing-in ceremony held in honor of the re-election of our president. But it wasn’t an official visit. We have been preparing for the official visit of the President to Türkiye for a long time together with our Turkmen colleagues.

This visit took place on October 25-26. The Turkish side, our President and our Government attached great importance to this visit. They received the President of Turkmenistan at the highest level in Türkiye.

Mr. President arrived in Türkiye on the afternoon of October 25. At Ankara’s Esenboga Airport, he was solemnly greeted by the Minister of Energy of our country, a member of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Türkiye. It was a very warm meeting. In the evening of the same day, members of the large official delegation accompanying the head of state held intensive meetings with their counterparts in Türkiye, including ministers and heads of institutions. These meetings between the delegations, in addition to the meetings of the head of State and his accompanying delegation, continued the next day, on 26 October. More than ten meetings were held.

The next day, on 26 October, in the morning, the head of state, as expected, visited Anitkabir. He paid tribute to the memory of the founder of our Republic Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, laid a wreath and left an entry in the book of memory. From there we all went together to the Turkmenistan Park, one of the most beautiful parks in Ankara. As you know, there is a very beautiful monument to Magtymguly Fragi. There, Mr. President laid a wreath at the monument to Magtymguly. Many Turkmen students studying in Türkiye greeted them with Turkish and Turkmen flags in their hands.

Then we visited the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye. On the occasion of this visit, the President was accompanied by representatives of the business circles of Turkmenistan.

The Türkiye-Turkmenistan Business Forum was organized with the participation of business people from both sides. The host party was the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye. The official part of the business forum was attended by President of Türkiye Serdar Berdimuhamedov, Vice President of our country Cevdet Yilmaz and Minister of Industry and Technology of Türkiye Fatih Kacir, as well as President of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu and many owners, managers and representatives of Türkiye’s largest companies. Very productive meetings were held there, and in their speeches, Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, our Minister, and Mr. President of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye expressed satisfaction with the level of trade and economic relations between the two countries and their expectations for the future.

You know, I would like mention it here too. When I arrived in Turkmenistan at the beginning of 2020, about 4 years have passed since then. During this four-year period, the volume of our bilateral trade with Turkmenistan has increased 3 times compared to last year, that is, as of the end of 2022, our total trade volume has increased 3 times. In other words, it has increased 3 times in 4 years. We finished last year with an indicator of 2.1 billion.

This year, in 2023, we have reached this figure, this level, in the first 9 months. In other words, this means that this year we expect the volume of bilateral trade to approach $ 3 billion. This corresponds to an increase of almost 4 times in 4 years. This means that the volume of bilateral trade between Türkiye and Turkmenistan has grown significantly in recent years, and we expect that this dynamic will continue in the future.

During the visit of the National Leader and Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan, Mr. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov to Türkiye in November 2021, they set a goal to bring the volume of trade to $ 5 billion as soon as possible. This is the goal they set for us. We are glad that over the past period we will exceed half of this goal. As I have already said, by the end of this year we expect it to reach $3 billion, thanks to our efforts.

In his speech at the meetings in the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye, President Serdar Berdimuhamedov set tasks for the further development of our business relations, our work and increasing cooperation with Türkiye in existing areas of cooperation. Of course, the major areas are the construction sector and energy.

In addition, Mr. President expressed his desire to cooperate closely with Türkiye, especially in the field of advanced technologies. He expressed a desire to deepen our relations and research in the field of innovation. He also offered to develop our cooperation in the field of agriculture. Of course, these proposals were positively received by Türkiye. The action plan of our Intergovernmental Economic Commission already has the infrastructure to implement these proposals.

Speaking about the format of our Intergovernmental Economic Commission, the issue of holding an exhibition of Turkish export products, which will be held in Ashgabat on 6-8 December this year, has entered the agenda. At the meetings held in the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye, dear President Serdar Berdimuhamedov invited our Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz to participate in the exhibition, and also offered to host a meeting of the Türkiye-Turkmenistan Intergovernmental Economic Commission in Ashgabat on the occasion of this exhibition.

Our Vice President stated that he accepts this invitation with pleasure. As you know, the last meeting of the Intergovernmental Economic Commission was held in Ashgabat on 1 July 2022. Usually we were preparing for this meeting to be held in Türkiye, but President Serdar Berdimuhamedov made a very good gesture and expressed his desire to hold this important meeting in Ashgabat again. Of course, this obviously caused a lot of excitement in the Turkish business world. This will further increase interest in the exhibition. We already have more than 100 participants, and the fact that the meeting of the Intergovernmental Economic Commission will be held here after accepting this invitation will significantly increase the number of Turkish companies participating in this exhibition. Preparation for the meeting of the Intergovernmental Economic Commission and the exhibition of Turkish export products is a task for all of us. We will work intensively until the beginning of December.

And here I would like to emphasize once again that our esteemed Minister of Industry and Technology, in his speech at the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye, addressing President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, said that Ankara seeks to include Turkmenistan in the megatechnological corridor that is being created by the Valley of Informatics and stretches from Istanbul to Baku (a corridor connecting research centers and developments between Türkiye and Azerbaijan). We believe that this will contribute to the further development of research activities between these three fraternal countries, especially in the field of high technology. I think this issue also deserves attention.

Then, after a meeting at the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye, the Honorary Cavalry met Berdimuhamedov’s official car on the street in front of the presidential complex and escorted him to the protocol gate, a type A protocol was applied, that is, the protocol of the highest level.

After Erdogan and Berdimuhamedov took their places, the national anthems of the two countries were played, accompanied by a 21-gun salute. The ceremonial square was decorated with flags representing 16 Turkish states existing in history. After an impressive ceremony, the heads of state met face-to-face. Then negotiations were held with the participation of delegations. And here they again expressed their satisfaction with the level of our bilateral relations. At the highest level, the desire of our states to further develop cooperation in the field of energy was once again expressed, which is probably closely followed by the whole world.

On the agenda, of course, is the project of a gas pipeline passing through the Caspian Sea. On this occasion, as known, there is a Protocol on the further development of cooperation in the energy sector, signed at the Türkiye-Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan trilateral summit held in Avaza last December. In this context, a trilateral working group, including representatives of relevant institutions, is currently continuing its work. These are surveys conducted at a technical level. This issue has always been on the agenda and is well known, but in addition, Mr. President said that they care not only about the development of cooperation in the field of natural gas transportation, but also about the supply of electricity produced in Turkmenistan to Türkiye and want to develop cooperation on this issue. This, of course, was positively received by our President.

Mr. Berdimuhamedov reiterated that the volume of energy produced will be significantly increased due to the construction of new cycle power plants in Turkmenistan in the near future.

As I have already said, in the coming period we will talk not only about the transportation of natural gas, but also about the transportation of electricity produced from natural gas to Türkiye.

Cooperation with fraternal Azerbaijan and the acceleration of our already existing cooperation and work in a trilateral format are of great importance here.

After that, our President gave the head of state an invitation to dinner.

Mr. President escorted his guest to Ankara’s Esenboga Airport.

Perhaps a pleasant episode covered in the media was that the heads of both states presented each other with puppies of breeds that occupy a special place in the culture and hearts of the peoples of both countries. President Serdar Berdimuhamedov presented President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with an Alabai dog, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan presented Serdar Berdimuhamedov with a kangal puppy.

To be honest, I was very proud to take part in this visit, to witness this historic visit and negotiations.

Our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is one of the most experienced, wise and guiding leaders among world leaders. He has very close fraternal relations with the Chairman of the People’s Assembly (Halk Maslahaty) of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, which have continued since his presidency. During this visit, we saw that such fraternal relations were established with President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, which, of course, is very important for both fraternal peoples and states, not only for us, but also for the future of our region and the whole world.

Here, of course, I would like to mention the position of Azerbaijan in the system of relations between our fraternal countries is also very important. We always see them in all our relations, especially in our cooperation on strategic issues, and this makes us happy.

As President Berdimuhamedov said, it is very pleasant and symbolic that the visit is timed to the 100th anniversary of our Republic. It made sense. He has stated this several times. We were very pleased to hear it from his own words. Because our Republic Day is a great event celebrated by people all over the world who live by the love of freedom and democracy. We accept this as an event that had a huge impact on the whole world 100 years ago. We see this as a development that ignites thoughts about the movement for freedom and independence, which is a hope not only for people living in Anatolia within the Turkish border, but also for the oppressed peoples of the world and all people living in captivity. That is why this holiday is a great date not only for the people of Türkiye, but also for all fraternal peoples. It was a source of happiness for us that this visit came at this time.

Inshallah, tomorrow we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of our republic together with a reception that we will organize in our fraternal country, in our Fatherland – Turkmenistan and Ashgabat. There we will gather together with you again.

Off topic, but the events that we witness in the world in recent years make us once again understand the value of our Republic, how valuable are the institutions that we have, these deeply rooted traditions, and the more we protect them, the more we will truly protect our children and our future.

Tomorrow we will have the opportunity to once again express our gratitude to our Great Leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who gave us our republic, to his friends, to all our martyrs, veterans and all statesmen who have led us to these points throughout the century.

We are waiting for you tomorrow.