Turkish Parliament Speaker Meets With Spanish Counterpart

Turkey's Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop met with the president of Spain's Congress of Deputies on Monday.

Sentop and Meritxell Batet met at the Assembly building in Madrid. Sentop signed the honor book of the assembly.

"Turkish and Spanish friendliness and their characteristics that value friendship, our universal and democratic values ​​form the basis of our strategic relations," Sentop wrote on the book.

Strengthening of relations between the parliaments of the two countries will bring Turkey and Spain closer, he said, noting that it is Turkey's "sincere desire" to see Turkish and Spanish parliamentarians working in close cooperation, which will contribute significantly to peace and prosperity in the Mediterranean basin and further the bilateral relations.

He also met with experts and professors from different think tanks at the Global International Relations Center affiliated with the IE Business School and responded to questions on the national and international agenda.

Turkey has hosted over 4 million Syrian refugees for nearly 10 years, he recalled, saying the country provides all opportunities to those people, including education and health.

"World conditions, paradigms, thoughts keep changing, but the significance of Turkey does not change," Sentop said, stressing Turkey's geostrategic position.

When asked about the situation in Afghanistan, he said if the Taliban open the Afghan borders, there will be a huge migration flow.

"We should establish conditions that can keep these people in Afghanistan and produce a policy considering the reality of the country," he added.

Sentop and the accompanying delegation will also meet with Senate President Ander Gil Garcia, chair of Joint Congress-Senate Committee for EU Susana Sumelzo, and head of Foreign Relations Committee of House of Representatives Pau Mari-Klose along with an accompanying parliamentary delegation. Sentop's meetings were closed to the press due to the pandemic measures.

Sentop's visit is the first over the last 27 years by a Turkish parliament speaker to Spain.

Writing by Gozde Bayar in Ankara. -