SANAA - Turkish Foreign Minister & Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul met Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Salih and Prime Minister Abd al-Qadir Ba Jamal in Sanaa on Wednesday.
Sources said that Gul conveyed Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's demand for construction of a cemetery for Turkish soldiers in Yemen to President Salih.
In the meeting, Gul expressed Erdogan's expectation for completion of the construction before his upcoming visit to Yemen.
Gul asked Salih to support Turkey's non-permanent membership to the UN Security Council. Salih said that they were supporting Turkey on this issue.
Yemeni President Salih noted that they expected that Turkish-Yemeni relations would be further improved.
TURKEY'S REFORM DRAFT RESOLUTION
Sources noted that Turkey submitted a draft resolution on the reform in Islam world in the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) Foreign Ministers' Conference, stating that the draft resolution would be taken up at the summit to be held in Mecca, Saudi Arabia at the end of 2005.
Sources stated that Qatar and Malaysia thanked Turkey for submitting the resolution on ''Democratization and Modernization'' in the meeting. The same sources stressed that the summit in Mecca would convene to discuss the reform, underlining that it would be meaningful to approve the resolution there.
Especially representatives from African countries showed great interest in Turkey. They said that they were very pleased with Gul's statement on aid to Africa.
Diplomatic sources said that Turkey's importance in the OIC increased much due to its foreign policy in the recent years.
On the other hand, sources stated that Turkey submitted another draft resolution on Turkish minority in Western Thrace, adding that the draft resolution was the same as the one that had been submitted last year.