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Ceremony held on birthday of Allama Iqbal
ANKARA: As part of the series of events to commemorate the 70 years of the establishment of Pakistan-Turkey diplomatic relations, Turkey’s Post & Telegraph Organisation (PTT) and Pakistan Post issued a joint commemorative stamp.
Inaugural ceremonies were held in Ankara and Islamabad simultaneously on Thursday.
The joint stamp depicts two great political thinkers who made a deep imprint on the hearts and minds of the people of Pakistan and Turkey—Allama Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938), the national poet of Pakistan and Mehmet Akif Ersoy (1873-1936), the national poet of Turkey.
Ambassador of Pakistan in Turkey Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi, PTT Chairman Kenan Bozgeyik, and Turkish Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Director General for South Asia Fazli Çorman performed the inauguration ceremony by signing enlarged specimen stamps at PTT Museum in Ankara.
In his remarks at the inaugural ceremony, Syrus Qazi said the last 70 years of Pakistan-Turkey diplomatic relations is a story of the unparalleled, unprecedented and indissoluble relationship of brotherhood, mutual trust, affection and selflessness.
“Friendship with Turkey is in our blood; it is in our ethos, and it is in our identity as a nation,” he said. The ambassador also paid glowing tributes to Allama Muhammad Iqbal and Mehmet Akif Ersoy, two great poets and thinkers of the twentieth century, who played a key role in the national struggles of Pakistan and Turkey.
He said though they never met each other, they regularly maintained contact through correspondence and drew light from each other.
PTT chairman informed that Turkey had issued 13 stamps about Pakistan on various occasions, but this was the first time that they were issuing a joint stamp. He reiterated his firm commitment to further enhance relations with Pakistan in the domain of postal services.
Fazli Çorman on the occasion said although relations between the two states are 70 years old, its roots are much deeper among the people spanning centuries.
A week-long stamps exhibition of historical stamps issued by both Pakistan and Turkey on different occasions also commenced at PTT Museum Ankara.