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Ilves: Estonia and Turkey's neighbourhood, security situation has changed dramatically

BC, Tallinn, 27.10.2014.Print version
When meeting with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Tallinn on Friday, Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said that Estonia and Turkey are both NATO border states, in whose neighbourhood the security situation has changed dramatically, LETA/Public Broadcasting reports.

Photo: president.ee

After the meeting, the presidents of Turkey and Estonia gave a press conference.

 

Tayyip Erdogan and Toomas Hendrik Ilves pointed out the good relations between the two countries, cooperation in the framework of NATO and interest towards cyber security.

 

According to the President of Estonia, the visit of the NATO state with Europe's biggest army shows Turkey's wish to act together with the allies. "Another reason is that Estonia has always been one of the biggest supporters of Turkey's accession to the European Union," said Ilves.

 

"When we look at how the world has changed around us in recent years, especially in the past year, both on the South side and east of Europe, then of course we have to reconsider what in my opinion, is a harsh attitude towards Turkey, which we have seen from some of the larger member states of the European Union," he said, adding that we need to re-evaluate the entire security situation. "These attitudes, which were quite common 5-7 years ago, I think it have lost their relevance," the president said.

 

"Estonia and Turkey are both NATO border states, in whose neighbourhood the security situation has changed dramatically," Ilves said.

 

The Turkish president was asked mainly about the situation in Syria. President Erdogan confirmed that 1,300 Free Syrian Army fighters join the Syrian Kurds to defend border town of Kobane. "Syrian Kurds decided to receive them, and are currently in talks over their delivery route," said Erdogan.

 

One of the topics of the presidents meeting was also the subject of economic cooperation between Estonia and Turkey. Besides tourism, the economic cooperation could be much wider, certainly in the field of information communication and cyber ssecurity, said Ilves, adding that they talked about the cyber security centre in depth.

 






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