Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to the Presidential Complex in Ankara on Thursday with a formal ceremony, according to Hürriyet. The visit brought Carney to the Turkish capital for a program that included one-on-one talks, a meeting between the two delegations and a joint press conference.
Hürriyet reports that mounted guards met Carney's official vehicle on the avenue outside the presidential complex and accompanied it to the protocol gate. Erdogan greeted the Canadian prime minister at the main entrance of the building. After both leaders took their places on the ceremony ground, a military band performed the national anthems of Turkey and Canada.
Why it matters
The reception marks a high-level diplomatic contact between Turkey and Canada at a time when Ankara is actively working to widen its trade relationships. According to Anadolu Ajansı, Erdogan said during the visit that Turkey hopes to raise the volume of trade with Canada to 10 billion dollars. The figure was cited by the state news agency as the president's stated goal, and no timeline for reaching it was given in the reporting reviewed.
Trade was not the only item on the agenda. The presence of Turkey's foreign, energy and trade ministers at the ceremony, alongside the head of the national intelligence service and the head of the defense industry agency, points to the breadth of subjects the two sides were expected to cover. Hürriyet's account of the ceremony lists Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar and Trade Minister Ömer Bolat among those in attendance.
Ceremony details and the delegations
The event followed Turkey's standard protocol for receiving a visiting head of government. Hürriyet reports that flags and soldiers representing the sixteen Turkish states of history were featured at the ceremony, and that a 21-gun salute was fired. Carney greeted the Presidential Guard Regiment with the words "Merhaba asker," a Turkish phrase meaning "hello, soldier," according to the newspaper.
The two leaders introduced their delegations to one another, then shook hands on the steps in front of the Turkish and Canadian flags and posed for photographers. They then moved into their private meeting and the expanded session with their teams.
On the Turkish side, the ceremony was also attended by the head of the National Intelligence Organization, İbrahim Kalın; the head of the Defense Industry Agency, Haluk Görgün; the president's chief of staff, Hasan Doğan; the head of the Presidential Communications Directorate, Burhanettin Duran; and the president's chief adviser on foreign policy and security, Akif Çağatay Kılıç. Turkey's ambassador to Ottawa, Can Dizdar, and the governor of Ankara, Yakup Canbolat, were present as well, Hürriyet reports.
A second meeting on the same day
Erdogan also received Kubanychbek Omuraliev, secretary-general of the Organization of Turkic States, at the presidential complex the same day, according to Hürriyet. The two engagements were reported separately but took place at the same venue.
The Organization of Turkic States is an international body formed to deepen political, economic, cultural and diplomatic cooperation among countries that share Turkic languages. Its foundations were laid by the Nakhchivan Agreement, signed in 2009 by Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and it took its current name in 2021 after previously being known as the Turkic Council. Uzbekistan's accession in 2019 brought full membership to five countries. Hungary, Turkmenistan and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus hold observer status, as does the Economic Cooperation Organization.
The organization's stated aims include increasing trade, supporting investment, improving energy and transport links, strengthening the Middle Corridor route between China and Europe, protecting shared cultural heritage, and coordinating diplomacy. It is supported by bodies including TÜRKSOY, TÜRKPA, the International Turkic Academy, the Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation and the Turkic Investment Fund. It is not a integrated economic union like the European Union, nor a military alliance with collective defense commitments like NATO; member states make their own foreign policy and security decisions.
What to watch
Erdogan and Carney were scheduled to hold a joint press conference after their meetings, where further details of the discussions were expected to be made public. Whether the two governments announce concrete steps toward the trade target Erdogan cited, and what else the leaders say at that appearance, will be the next points to follow.
