Japan’s royals meet Turkish-Japanese community in Istanbul

ISTANBUL

Japan's Crown Prince Fumihito and Crown Princess Kiko held talks with Turkish citizens who have historical and business-related ties with Japan as part of the royal couple’s Istanbul visit on Dec. 6.

The couple met with academicians, representatives of Turkish-Japanese friendship associations as well as Turkish citizens connected with Japan at Çırağan Palace in Istanbul.

During the meeting, the prince and princess expressed their gratitude to Koray Gökberk, Ayşe Özalp and Sevil Atıcı, who were among the flight crew involved in the evacuation of Japanese citizens trapped in Tehran to Türkiye in 1985.

The team expressed that they were proud to be a part of such an operation.

During the Iran-Iraq war, 215 Japanese were stranded in Tehran, unable to return in a second evacuation operation after Baghdad said it would also shoot down civilian aircraft in the region.

Turkish pilots brought the remaining Japanese to the Turkish capital Ankara with a successful rescue operation under difficult conditions.

The couple, who started their first official visit to Türkiye at the beginning of the week, also met with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and first lady Emien Erdoğan. On their first day in Ankara, they also visited the mausoleum of Türkiye’s founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and paid their respects.

On Dec. 5, during their visit to Istanbul, they visited the city's landmark Hagia Sophia. The visit aims at commemorating the centennial of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

They will also visit an excavation site in the central city of Kırşehir's Kaman district, where Turkish and Japanese archaeologists are collaborating.