MOSCOW - A Turkish-Russian Research Centre (RUTAM) will be founded to increase the role which intellectuals from the two countries can play in Turkish-Russian Centre.
A news conference was held in Moscow on Thursday night to promote the Centre that would be founded with initiatives of journalist-writer Hakan Aksay.
Addressing the meeting, former Russian Ambassador to Turkey Albert Chernishev, who will be the honourary president of RUTAM together with Turkish Professor Ilber Ortayli, said that Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul would visit Moscow at the end of the month and Russian President Vladimir Putin was expected to visit Turkey this year. Chernishev noted that those visits would speed up the improvement of the bilateral relations.
Chernishev said that not only businessmen, but scholars of the two countries should come together to contribute to bilateral relations.
Turkish Ambassador to Russia Kurtulus Taskent said in his part that the political relations between the two countries were as they should be between two friendly countries and the economic relations were perfect.
Calling businessmen to support such projects which would bring peoples of the two countries together, Taskent said that ''this initiative will not only remain among intellectual groups. Results to be taken here will have good effect on two peoples and the latter will know each other better.''
Noting that the diplomatic relations between Turkey and Russia started in 1492, Taskent said that ''Turkish-Russian people's knowing each other carries great importance and this centre will contribute to that.''
Aksay said that such a centre could help in the solution of problems between the two countries.
(Öª-AÖ) 13.02.2004