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Turkey, Pakistan add cultural dimensions to relations
The Central Anatolian city of Konya is home to the museum and mausoleum of 13th century Sufi saint Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi, who is well known in Pakistan. Upon their arrival in the city on board of a private plane, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and his Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, watched sema (whirling ceremony) performed by the Konya Metropolitan Municipality's Sema Ensemble. As of yesterday, after visiting the Mevlana Mausoleum, the two ministers signed a protocol declaring, Konya, which is Davutoğlu's hometown, a sister city to the Pakistani city of Multan, which is Qureshi's hometown.
The friendship relation between Pakistan and Turkey is a historical one which is known by the entire world, Davutoğlu said at the signing ceremony, adding: Every Pakistani and every Turk are siblings with each other. Their views regarding the world, their reactions against incidents and their vision concerning the future are same.”
Davutoğlu, meanwhile, invited Qureshi to ceremonies which will be held in December in Konya to mark the 736th anniversary of the death of Mevlana.
The two-day ministerial level meeting of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP) which was held in İstanbul on Monday and Tuesday aimed at providing from the international community to rehabilitate the Malakand and Swat regions -- which had been used by the Taliban to fight NATO forces in Afghanistan -- at the border. The İstanbul meeting also served as a preparatory meeting for the first FoDP summit, which US President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari will jointly host on Sept. 24 in New York.
As of Tuesday, Davutoğlu and Qureshi, co-chairs of the İstanbul meeting, released a joint declaration on behalf of the participants in which they highlighted Pakistan's importance as “an anchor of stability,” both for the region and the world.
The declaration, while appreciating Islamabad's handling of the internally displaced crisis, also noted that more than 1.4 million people had returned to their homes already. It said it was essential to accord high priority to the reconstruction of the conflict-hit areas to win the hearts and minds of the people, while recalling the international community's decision to support the Pakistan government's efforts for the socio-economic uplift of the affected areas. It also applauded the Pakistan government's decision to re-launch a revitalized Pakistan Development Forum and recommended a special focus on energy, security and other national priorities.
The declaration underlined the need to develop partnership between the public and private sectors to help the nation's economy and voiced will for continuing to strengthen and expand cooperation with Pakistan, collectively and individually, to enable the country to build upon its inherent strengths.
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