ANKARA - President Ahmet Necdet Sezer returned on Saturday from Malaysia, where he attended the 10th Session of the Islamic Summit Conference of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), to Turkey.
Sezer told reporters that the summit held in Malaysia between October 16-17 was a good opportunity to improve understanding and cooperation among member countries.
President Sezer said that he attended the summit by a delegation comprised of Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul and representatives of concerned institutions.
Sezer noted that a number of issues like Middle East, Iraq, Cyprus, Western Thrace Muslim Turkish minority, Azerbaijani-Armenian dispute, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Jammu-Kashmir, Afghanistan, nuclear disarmament and OIC's institutional problems were taken up in the meeting.
''The communique adopted at the end of the summit supported our stance and views about Cyprus and Western Thrace Muslim Turkish minority which directly concern us. The communique also mentioned Iraq issue and condemned the suicide attack staged against our Embassy in Baghdad on October 14,'' Sezer said.
Sezer pointed out that he had the opportunity to hold bilateral meetings with heads of state of Pakistan, Iran, Syria and Russian Federation and prime ministers of Bangladesh and Lebanon.
Bilateral relations and regional and international issues were main agenda of his bilateral meetings, Sezer said.
Sezer recalled that he chaired the meeting of the OIC Kashmir Contact Group.
He presented a written note to member countries about Turkey's views regarding the progress report on activities of Standing Committee for Economic and Trade Cooperation (COMCEC) prepared by the OIC Secretariat General and the COMCEC Coordination Bureau, Sezer said.
Sezer added that the summit was a good opportunity to improve understanding and cooperation among member countries.
(BRC) 19.10.2003