Erdoğan Visits Slovenia To Enhance Relations

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has paid a visit to Slovenia to have talks with Slovenian President Borut Pahor on improving bilateral relations as well as exchanging views on regional and international developments.

Erdoğan, speaking at a joint press conference on Monday, noted that the number of high-level visits between Turkey and Slovenia has increased in recent years.

He added that the countries need to look at growing their bilateral trade volume, saying: “Our trade volume with Slovenia, which is $1 billion, is not sufficient. As the leaders [of both countries] we are determined to further ties between our countries. … We [Turkey] are taking steps to increase the weekly Turkish Airlines [THY] flights [to Slovenia] to 10.”

Erdoğan also invited his Slovenian counterpart to attend the commemoration ceremonies of the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli Campaign of World War I set to take place on April 24.

In earlier remarks, Erdoğan had said representatives from about 50 countries are expected to attend the event.

Responding to a question on what kind of measures the Turkish government has taken against the entry of foreigners to Turkey in order to join the ranks of terrorist groups in Syria, Erdoğan said, "Turkey should not send back all the tourists visiting the country."

He called on more assistance from other countries to help Turkey to effectively stem the flow of individuals traveling from other countries to join the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) via Turkey.

He said Turkey has so far expatriated about 1,250 people believed to be headed to Syria to join terrorist groups.

There is currently a list of 12,500 people who are banned from entering Turkey over their suspected affiliation with terrorist groups in Syria, Erdoğan said.(Cihan/Today's Zaman)

SHOTLIST
SLOVENIA, LJUBLJANA, 30 MAR 2015

Erdoğan's plane
Erdoğan and his spouse appear at the door
Erdoğan and Turkish delegation deplane
VAR of the official welcoming ceremony

DURATION: 03:36