BERN - Turkey`s Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said on Friday that activities that could be jointly carried out by Turkey and Switzerland in third countries regarding development and humanitarian aid issues were on the agenda of his recent meeting with Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey.
Speaking to A.A, Babacan said Turkey currently carried out various activities in more than 100 countries and Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) was active in nearly 37 countries in Africa.
"Turkey has unique strong qualifications. Actually, it is not quite easy to do what Turkey and Turkish officials manage to do in certain countries," Babacan said.
Babacan said it would be more advantegous if Turkey and Switzerland cooperated in areas which could not be handled solely by Switzerland or in which Turkey deemed necessary to work with a partner.
He said officials from TIKA and the relevant Swiss authority would soon hold talks to determine the potential areas of cooperation.
Babacan also said that Switzerland`s stance regarding the incidents of 1915 and terrorist organization PKK`s activities in Europe were the two main issues that had a negative impact on Turkish-Swiss relations.
Commenting on the incidents of 1915, Babacan said Turkey did not have anything to fear about its history.
"As you know there is a step taken by the Swiss parliament in 2003 on such issue," Babacan said, stating that this problem could be overcome by holding intense talks between Turkish and Swiss parliamentarians and by making the Swiss public understand the issue better.
Regarding PKK`s activities in Europe, Babacan said the terrorist organization, hiding behind the image of an NGO, carried out activities in many European countries and it took advantage of the European tolerance on basic rights and freedoms.
"We hope Swiss authorities adopt a much more different and serious stance regarding the activities of the terrorist organization in Swiss territories," Babacan said.
Commenting on his talks in Switzerland as well, Babacan said that his visit was quite fruitful.
Noting that the Swiss president would visit Turkey in November, Babacan said the Swiss economy minister would also hold talks in Turkey soon accompanied by a group of businessmen.
(DO-AY)
(DIP)