Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Turgay Avcý and his accompanying delegation who are currently in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia started their contacts yesterday (21 January).

Avcý and his delegation yesterday met with the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC)’s Director of the Islamic Solidarity Fund Ghazi Bakhsh and the President of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sheikh Ali Al-Turki.

During his meeting with Sheikh Ali Al-Turki, Foreign Minister Avcý pointed out that they exchanged views regarding improving trade relations between Saudi Arabia and the TRNC.

At the meeting, where the issues of marketing TRNC export goods in Saudi Arabia and developing mutual trade between the two countries were taken up, Foreign Minister Avcý briefed Al-Turki on the latest political developments in Cyprus and drew attention to the intransigent stance of the Greek Cypriot administration in the process of reaching a comprehensive settlement in Cyprus. Avcý expressed belief that the support of brother country Saudi Arabia to Turkish Cypriots would increasingly continue.

President of the Cyprus Turkish Chamber of Commerce Erdil Nami, who is in the delegation accompanying Avcý, briefed Al-Turki on the activities of the Chamber as well as tourism and trade opportunities in the TRNC.

For his part, Al-Turki stated that they were approaching positively to developing relations with Cyprus Turkish Chamber of Commerce and were ready to carry out the necessary studies in this direction.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Religious Affairs Ahmet Yönlüer, who is also amongst those accompanying Foreign Minister Avcý, yesterday met with the OIC’s Director of the Islamic Solidarity Fund Ghazi Bakhsh.

During the meeting, Yönlüer and Bakhsh exchanged views on the financial support to be given to the projects of the TRNC by the Fund, which also provided financial support to various projects in the TRNC in the past years.

It was reported that Bakhsh approached positively to the projects of building new Mosques in the rural areas in the TRNC and the equipment of the National Archive with modern computer systems.