ISLAMABAD: Following is the text of the address of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the joint sitting of the Senate and National Assembly here Thursday.
Text begins here:
Honorable National Assembly Speaker,
Honorable Chairman of the Senate,
Esteemed Members of the National Assembly and Senate,
Dear brothers and sisters,
I would like to extend to you my most heartfelt greetings, affection, fondness and respect on behalf of myself, my delegation, my country and my people.
I brought wholehearted salaam to you from Turkey.
I once more present my affection, respect and fondness to all my Pakistani brothers and sisters through you.
During the visit in 2012, I was here with you again in a joint session of the National Assembly and Senate.
After a period of about four and a half years, I am glad to meet you again in this institution which is the symbol of national will.
Pakistan has become an important model for the Islamic world demonstrating that democracy may work through maintaining its values.
I also congratulate you for your success.
Dear brothers and sisters,
The relations between Turkey and Pakistan are of exclusive nature far beyond diplomatic contacts between two states.
We are two brotherly countries, not in words but in real meaning.
There is such a deep tie of friendship and affection between our peoples that we are happy with happiness of our Pakistani brothers and we are sad with their sadness.
We know that you also share similar feelings.
Our countries and peoples have acted with this understanding throughout the history.
Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Rumi, who was born in this geography in a broad sense and spread his wisdom and knowledge from Anatolia to the world, is one of our common values.
No need to go farther, if we review the developments in the last century we can see the deepness of our friendship.
We have never forgotten and will not forget that thousands of our Pakistani brothers came to our help during the War of Dardanelles by taking the risk of very hard conditions.
We have always kept and will keep in our memory the support and solidarity displayed to us during our War of Liberation.
In the foundations of today’s Turkey, there are efforts and endeavours of many Pakistani heroes such as Abdurrahman Peshawari who came to help the Ottoman Empire during the Balkan War and then took part first in the War of Dardanelles and later in the War of Liberation and made great contributions to our country even after the proclamation of the Republic.
And Abdurrahman Peshawari is such a brother for us that when his mother sent him a message to return home, responded “I cannot return while Anatolia is under occupation”.
For us, there is no difference between Muhammed Ikbal and Mehmet Akif; both are the philosophers of our liberation and future.
We also never forgot and will not forget that our Pakistani brothers were the ones who offered the greatest support and assistance during the earthquake of 1999.
Pakistan declared a day of mourning after the mining disaster in Soma in 2014.
We also declared a day of mourning in Turkey, deeply feeling the pain caused by the terrorist attack which resulted in the loss of lives of tens of students in the public army school in December 2014, in Peshawar.
Our strong historical ties which always maintained its vitality, make Turkey and Pakistan exclusive to each other.
I hope, we will spread this spirit of solidarity and fraternity, Inshallah to the whole world together.
Honorable Speaker and Chairman of the Senate,
Distinguished Members of the Parliament,
I would like to especially point out that Pakistan was the first country to stand by Turkey with its state government, parliament and its people after the 15 July coup attempt in Turkey.
We appreciated the resolutions of support which were adopted unanimously by your parliament.
The support visit of the Pakistani delegation to Turkey in August, which comprised of deputies representing a broad political spectrum, contributed to our struggle against the terrorist organizations.
Pakistan, with its stance against the 15 July coup attempt, perpetrated by Fetullah Glen Terrorist Organization (FETO), showed that it also stood by the Turkish Nation in its second War of Liberation.
May Allah be pleased with you and forever maintain and preserve our solidarity.
I would like to express my thanks once again for your support.
On this occasion, I would like to state once again that FETO is a bloody terrorist organization posing a threat not only to Turkey but to all countries in which it operates.
I wholeheartedly believe that this terrorist organization will be eliminated as soon as possible without harming brotherly Pakistan.
I appreciate the recent decisions taken by the Pakistani Government in this direction, and I thank you for your strong support in our fight against FETO.
I believe that we should maintain and further enhance our cooperation and solidarity against terrorist organizations.
The terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaida and its affiliate DAESH are the agents of the war carried out against Islam which are only and solely harming Muslims.
We should eliminate these bunches of killers, who have no other skill than to shed Muslims’ blood, from the Islamic world and from all over the world as soon as possible.
Otherwise, neither Turkey, nor Pakistan, nor the world of Islam, nor humankind will attain peace.
If we cannot overcome our problems hand in hand as believers of these holy religion, we cannot save Muslims from the pit of impunity that they have fallen into.
Islam is a religion of union and wahdat.
We are all proud of being members of this holy religion, whose greatest goal is to ensure goodness and to remove the evil on earth.
In other words, the condition to deserve the title of Muslim is to stand against all kinds of persecution, inequity and injustice wherever and by whoever it is perpetrated.
Only by doing this, we can be a good Ummah as the Almighty Allah commanded.
Terrorist organizations try to find a basis for themselves by provoking the divisions and differences among the Muslims.
In order to save the Muslims from this servile situation faced, we have to eradicate all means of exploitation from sectarianism to ethnic discrimination spreading among the Islamic nations.
We must fight together against those who are desiring to turn the Islamic World into a geography in which division, defeatism, instigation, hatred and ignorance prevail.
As it was uttered by Mohammad Iqbal;
If there is no unity in movement, unity in ideas is futile.
Turkey and Pakistan by their positions in their regions and their great civilization legacy, are two countries that have the potential to lead and to impel the world regarding this issue.
We take all risks on the issue and we do not refrain from any struggle.
We express the humanitarian crises in our region, unfairness and injustice in the world in every platform and we suggest solutions.
Our efforts are not just limited to these, we show our solidarity with all of our brothers and sisters through our humanitarian and development assistance projects, with political and military support when necessary.
We will continue our struggle until we succeed in preventing unjustly spilling of blood of any Muslim in the World.
We offer to you, our Pakistani brothers and sisters, to remove together the obstacles before the Islamic World all.
Honorable Speaker and Chairman of the Senate,
Esteemed Members of Parliaments,
The relations between our countries sharing common values, having ancient ties, supporting each other in regional and international issues, experienced a great breakthrough in recent years.
Mutual high level contacts greatly contribute to the development and thrive of our relations in every field.
In this regard, I would also like to express that inter-parliamentarian contacts play a critical role in strengthening the relations between the politicians and nations of the two countries.
I hope that we will continue the close dialogue established between the parliamentarians of the two countries, in the forthcoming period.
Similarly, we should strengthen our cooperation in the fields of trade and investment.
The High Level Strategic Cooperation Council established between Turkey and Pakistan in 2009 has brought an institutional framework for our relations.
We have come a long way in a short period of time by signing 51 agreements and documents within the Council so far.
However, we do not consider this sufficient.
Together, we should put into practice new projects and new partnerships which will provide employment for our people.
Turkey and Pakistan are two countries which have great potential.
We should not allow any obstacle to prevent us from using our capabilities completely.
We should resolutely maintain our existing cooperation in order to deepen our relations in developing investments, infrastructure projects, health and defense industry.
Besides, Turkey also supports its Pakistani brothers through development-oriented cooperation projects.
Lastly, our humanitarian relief institutions and the Red Crescent rapidly reached to Pakistan and displayed our traditional solidarity between our nations as it was the case in the major flood disaster in 2010.
On the other hand, through “Turkey Scholarships” granted for bachelor, master and doctorate degrees we bring the experiences of Pakistani students to Turkey and contribute to our Pakistani brothers in the field of qualified human resource.
I highly value the Memorandum of Understanding, which will be signed next month between the Council of Higher Education of Turkey and the Council of Higher Education of Pakistan, which will provide the opportunity for 500 Pakistani students to do their PhD in Turkey, each year.
The Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) carries out valuable projects with regard to the development assistance through its coordination office in Islamabad.
I hope that our joint projects in every field will also continue in the future.
Honorable Chairman of the Senate and Honorable Speaker,
Distinguished Members of the Parliament,
We attach importance to the development of cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan within the framework of their good neighborhood relations.
This cooperation is indispensable not only for peace and security of the region, but also for the economic potential of this geography and carrying out important infrastructure projects.
The Kashmir issue, which we follow carefully and could not have been solved for almost 70 years, continues to hurt our conscience.
The latest developments in Kashmir once again demonstrated the importance and the urgency of the solution of this problem.
We are aware of the distress and suffering of our Kashmiri brothers and sisters.
We are deeply concerned about the increase of the tension.
The international community should exert further efforts in order to solve this issue which has political and humanitarian dimensions, according to justice and law.
We wish that Pakistan and India taking and the consideration the demands of the Kashmiri people to find a solution to the Kashmir issue through direct dialogue.
Turkey stands ready to make any effort possible to this end.
As I conclude my speech, I would like to thank you once again for your hospitality.
I salute you and all Pakistani brothers and sisters once again warmly and respectfully.
May Allah bless and help you.
Allah Hafiz.
PAKISTAN ZINDABAD
TURKI PAINDABAD
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