ANKARA - Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan departed from the Turkish capital, Ankara for Qatar on Sunday.
Turkey's Energy & Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Guler, Industry & Trade Minister Zafer Caglayan, as well as numerous MPs, businessmen and bureaucrats are accompanying Erdogan during his visit.
Delivering a statement prior to his departure, Erdogan said he would attend the inaugural session of the "8th Doha Forum on Democracy, Development and Free Trade" to be held in Doha, Qatar on Sunday.
Erdogan said he would hold talks with the Amir, Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Energy & Industry Minister of Qatar within the framework of his two-day visit to this country.
He said the relations between Turkey and Qatar improved recently and the foreign trade volume between the two countries has reached 480 million USD.
"We will discuss with our addressees the cooperation opportunities between Turkey and Qatar regarding the energy issue," Erdogan said.
He also said Turkey's desire to strengthen its relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and to sign a free trade agreement would be discussed during the talks.
Erdogan said he would also get together with Turkish and Qatari businessmen during his visit.
Replying to a question on Italian artist Giuseppina Pasqualino's recent death in Turkey, Erdogan said he could not find any words to describe the incident.
"I am deeply sad that an artist travelling as a peace envoy was faced with such a treatment," Erdogan said.
Offering his condolences to Pasqualino's family, Erdogan said he believed the Turkish jurisdiction would make the necessary assessments and would reach the fairest verdict.
Italian artist Giuseppina Pasqualino (33), who was known as "Pippa Bacca" in her country, departed from the Italian city of Milan together with Silvia Moro, an artist friend of hers, on March 8th. The two artists were travelling to the Israeli city of Tel Aviv by hitchhiking in order to give a "peace message" to the world.
Pasqualino and Moro separated from each other in Istanbul on March 19th. Since March 31st, no contact could be established with Pasqualino.
The artist was found dead in a forest near Gebze town of the northwestern province of Kocaeli on April 12th.
The 38-year-old suspect of the murder, Murat Karatas was arrested.
(DO-BRC)