SPEECH TO BE DELIVERED BY H.E. MADAM AMBASSADOR GÜLŞEN KARANİS EKŞİOĞLU ON THE NATIONAL DAY RECEPTION (27 October 2023)

Honourable Foreign Minister,

Distinguished Guests,

Dear Friends of Türkiye,

Welcome to our National Day reception!

It is indeed a great honour to host you all on the occasion of the centenary of the proclamation of the Republic of Türkiye.

Today, we feel a great sense of pride and joy. The founder and the first President of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, declared the Republic on 29 October 1923.

And it is indeed a distinct privilege for all Turkish Ambassadors including myself around the world to celebrate our 100^th
anniversary.

Welcoming our friends here in Budapest, however, gives me a great pleasure.

This is because, Hungary is one of the few countries who had made significant contributions to the development of Türkiye during the early Republican years.

Just look closer to the long list of “firsts” in the early years of modern Türkiye, and you will see the signature of Hungarian engineers, experts and academics.

When young Türkiye was thriving, Hungarians from different walks of life came at the invitation of Atatürk to design new buildings, set-up public institutions, construct factories, build farms, studs, and many others all around the country.

Of course, we have come a long way in the last 100 years...

We have one of the most stable and durable democracies in a volatile and turbulent region.

We have one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

We have young and dynamic population who is well-trained and highly skilled.

Today, we are all striving to put on top of our achievements with a new “Century of Türkiye” vision elaborated by our President Erdoğan and realizing Atatürk’s principle of “peace at home and peace in the world”.

Yet, we do remember the contributions of our Hungarian brothers and sisters during the early years of the Republic.

Just as we still cherish the memories of the leaders of the Hungarian independence movement from the Ottoman times. When you visit Tekirdağ, İzmit or Kütahya, you will come across with the footprints of Rákóczi Ferenc, Thököly Imre and Kossuth Lajosh.

As a matter of fact, on your way today to our National Day Reception in this beautiful venue, you walked past their statues in Höşök Tere.

Our Hungarian friends did not win our hearts and minds only in the past.

Most recently in February, during the devastating earthquakes in south-east Anatolia, they proved once again that “a friend in need is a friend indeed
”.

Hungarian search and rescue teams were among the first to rush to our rescue and to leave the last. We were all touched by the display of solidarity here in Hungary. Donations literally poured in to our warehouse and to our relief campaign.

We are grateful to Madame President Novak, Prime Minister Orban and to you personally, Honorable Foreign Minister, for visiting us to express your solidarity and support at difficult times.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Turkish-Hungarian friendship, solidarity and cooperation is not an empty rhetoric built upon our past encounters.

It is a living and evolving body of partnership.

We recently had a track record of high-level visits.

So far in 2023, along with you Honorable Minister and Madam President, we also hosted Prime Minister Orban and other cabinet Ministers in Türkiye.

On our side, we had our Foreign Ministers and almost half of the cabinet visiting Budapest. We had a few high-level military visits as well including the ones at the level of the Chiefs of General Staff and force commanders.

For next month only, we are working on the visits of Turkish Ministers of Defence and Industry and Technology as well as the first meeting of the newly-established Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) in İstanbul.

In August, President Erdoğan was here to attend the celebrations for the State Foundation Day and the World Athletics.

And he will be here again soon in December, when we will have the “High-Level Strategic Council” meeting and upgrade our relations to the level of “enhanced strategic partnership”.

Given the current depth and breadth of Turkish-Hungarian relations, such an upgrade was long overdue.

“Enhanced strategic partnership” will mean widening the scope of our collaboration, while focusing on a carefully selected areas of high significance at the same time including trade, energy and defence industry.

Speaking of trade, we are proud of more than 500 Turkish companies operating in Hungary to reach our joint target of 6 billion Dollars of trade volume.

We are also proud that they are building new production lines for global giants here in Hungary.

Let me also take this opportunity to express our gratitude to Turkish businesses for their strong support to our National Day Reception as well.

We specifically timed President Erdoğan’s visit for the 18^th
of December. Because, on the very same day in 1923, our two countries signed the Friendship and Cooperation Agreement.

It was the first agreement signed by Türkiye after the proclamation of the Republic. As such, it signifies the centenary of the diplomatic relations between our two countries.

We will commemorate this joyous occasion with the opening of the “2024 Year of Culture between Türkiye and Hungary”.

Next year, you will hear more of us and of the Turkish culture here in Budapest and throughout Hungary.

Honorable Minister,

Dear Friends of Türkiye,

Recently, I made use of a particular expression to describe our relations and allow me
to elaborate on it here too:

-
We consider Hungary as a distant relative;
maybe not so close in terms of lineage, but definitely among the fondest family members in terms of our feelings towards one another. One such example is our strong collaboration in the Organization of Turkic States.

-
We consider Hungary as a neighbour;
we might not be sharing a common border but we share similar perspectives on issues of mutual concern in our neighbourhood. An example is Turkish and Hungarian police patrolling the borders together against irregular migration,

-
We consider Hungary as an eternal partner;
maybenot so much when we were separated by an Iron curtain, but we generally have managed to stand together. It does not mean that we always see eye-to-eye on all issues. But the bottom line is, when our analyses converge and interests align, we choose to join our forces.

Thank you, Honorable Minister, for being with us on this special occasion.

In your presence today as well as that of all our guests, we also pay our respects to Atatürk and his comrades in arms who fought for the independence of the Turkish nation.

We are eternally grateful to all our ancestors who contributed to our homeland over the last century too.

Happy 100^th anniversary! The floor is yours now Mr. Minister.