Turkish President Gül on board for Sweden visit

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

President Adbullah Gül and his wife Hayrünnisa Gül leave for Sweden. AA photo

President Abdullah Gül will pay a landmark visit to Sweden in the first ever state visit by a Turkish head of state to the country.

“I sincerely believe that this historic visit will contribute to the broadening of horizons for Turkish-Swedish relations, which have gained very strong momentum recently,” Gül said at a press conference before his departure to Sweden yesterday.

Gül and his wife, Hayrünnisa Gül, along with Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and EU Minister Egemen Bağış, are traveling to Sweden at the invitation of King Carl XVI Gustaf.

During the two-day visit, the Swedish King and Queen will be accompanying President Abdullah Gül and his wife Hayrünnisa Gül.

The visit has another historic aspect, as Patriarchal Vicar of the Syriac Orthodox Church Metropolitan Filiksinos Yusuf Çetin will be the first ever representative of a Turkish minority to accompany the Turkish president during a state visit abroad.

Gül and the Swedish King will participate in the opening ceremony of the Stockholm University Institute for Turkish Studies, and several academics are also accompanying Gül on the visit.
The Turkish president is to deliver a speech at the Swedish Parliament and will also meet with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.

He will also be accompanied by a delegation of more than a hundred businessmen. The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) has announced in a statement that a delegation headed by TOBB’s chair, Rıfat Hisarcıklıoğlu, will participate in a Turkish-Swedish Business Forum in Stockholm. The delegation will gather with the representatives of Swedish business sectors seeking to develop commercial and investment ties. President Gül and the King will also participate in the Turkish-Swedish Business Forum, where Gül will meet high profile executives of world-renowned Swedish trademark corporations in a round-table discussion.

Gül will also meet with representatives of the 100,000-strong community of Turkish citizens living in Sweden.

After completing his visit to Stockholm, he will travel to the former Swedish capital of Uppsala, about which he has expressed his enthusiasm. “One of the most exciting parts of the Sweden visit will be observing the Ottoman books, maps and manuscripts in Uppsala,” Gül said.