Sudanese president to visit Turkey next August
July 25, 2008 (ANKARA) — Sudan’s President, Omer Hassan al-Bashir is expected in Ankara next month to participate in a Trukey-African Union summit, it would be the first time he attends such gathering since this indictment by an international prosecutor.
The judges are expected to make a decision on whether to issue a warrant for Bashir’s arrest in October or November.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry announced today the participation of al-Bashir in the Turkey-African Union Cooperation Summit scheduled to begin on August 18. He is one of the 20 head of state and government who confirmed the invitation addressed by Ankara.
“According to the information we have, the Sudanese president has confirmed he will be attending. We assume that under normal circumstances he will attend,” Kenan Tepedelen, the coordinator for African affairs at the Foreign Ministry, told reporters late on Thursday.
Turkey is not party to the Rome Statute of the ICC at present. Ankara is a member of the unofficial group “Friends of the ICC” since 2004.
Al-Bashir’s state visit to Ankara last January had been the focus of rights groups, who criticized the visit and called on Turkish leaders to press the Sudanese president to end ongoing bloodshed and abuses in Darfur region. Gül described the Darfur issue as “a humanitarian tragedy” after meeting with al-Bashir and called on the international community to exert efforts to help end it.
However during the recent years, Turkey has increasingly developed its commercial and military cooperation with Sudan.
Last year bilateral trade volume reached 225 million USD. Moreover, Turkish direct investments in Sudan have amounted to nearly 50 million USD (disregarding the Turkish firms operating in contracting and consulting), according to the Turkish foreign ministry website.
Sudan and Turkey are signatories of a memorandum of understanding in areas of military industrialization, transfer of military technology, training, and provide military services. During his visit to Ankara al-Bashir requested Turkey to sell weapons to the Sudanese armed forces. Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül said at that time that his government is studying the request.
(ST)