Welcome to the Official page of the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic

We are deeply gratified to welcome President Abdullah Gül and Mrs. Hayrunnisa Gül to Portugal, as well as their retinue on this State Visit.

My wife and I have very vivid and pleasant memories of our Visit to Turkey in 2009 and, very particularly, the friendly welcome received in that fascinating country. We fondly hope that you will feel so much at home in Portugal as we did in Turkey.

Our two countries are linked by centuries’ old bonds and deep friendship. Throughout the ages, Portugal and Turkey learned admiration and respect for each other. We are located in the two extremities of Europe, but we converge in the values and principles we defend: the dignity of the human being as a basis of democratic politics and economic development as a premise of social justice.

We share today essential values that are not only reflected in our bilateral relationship but also in the international organizations in which we both belong, such as the Atlantic Alliance and the Council of Europe. And, in a future that we both expect will not be long in coming, we will be together in the European Union.

Turkey is the synthesis of two continents, an image materialized in the bridges crossing the Bosporus. Under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal, it became a modern country and open to the world, which dialogues with all civilizations and fraternizes with the pluralism of religious beliefs and the diversity of political ideologies. The entrance of Turkey in the European Union – which, as is well known, Portugal has always defended – will enrich Europe with the millenary wisdom of a people with an age old History, but will also become an essential component to deepen the path of modernization, of democratization and of development that has been treaded in the latter years.

It is well known that Portugal and Europe are going through a difficult and demanding time. The financial crisis in the Euro Zone has disclosed structural weaknesses and imbalances in the economies of several Member States, equally showing the difficulties of the European institutions to provide adequate and timely responses to an unprecedented situation.

Important decisions have been taken and instruments adopted at European level to strengthen the system of economic governance and financial stability and to reinforce the confidence in the single currency. But, as I have been alerting, we need to do more, and better, to promote economic growth and employment.

Your Excellency’s visit, Mister President, is the confirmation of the firm willingness of political officers in the strengthening of our relationship and of our cooperation in actions of mutual interest. The agreement reached between both countries as to the entry regime of national citizens in Turkey, an issue that has been awaiting resolution for twenty years, is only the most recent example of the cooperation that is being intensified between Portugal and Turkey.

Along with the strong increment in our bilateral relations in political terms, it is essential that we deepen our economic relationship, in which we are still far from benefiting from the enormous existing potential.

I want, for this reason, to warmly greet Your Excellency’s entrepreneurial retinue.

We would like to invite the Turkish entrepreneurs and investors to look towards Portugal as a Member State of the European Union that can offer them a favourable environment for their businesses and excellent investment opportunities, and whose linguistic and cultural proximity with countries such as Brazil, Angola and Mozambique is, in addition, a particularly important asset in matters of triangular cooperation.

Portuguese entrepreneurs are showing great interest in the perspectives that Turkey, due to its characteristics and geographical situation has to offer. I am convinced that in such diverse sectors as tourism, trade, energy, construction, transport and infrastructures, there lie opportunities today that must be taken advantage of for our mutual benefit.

Mister President,

We live in a global world and at a time when international relations go much further than just the strictly bilateral field.

I thus want to underline Turkey’s role on behalf of stability, security and peace, of its contribution towards the resolution of such complex and dramatic situations as that which is currently being lived in Syria. The International Community must not tolerate the human tragedy that is taking place there. I commend the Turkish authorities for the efforts they have been developing to face the drama of the thousands of Syrian refugees that have been looking for shelter in its territory.

Also in Afghanistan, in South Caucasus, or with regard to the Middle East or to the Iranian issue, Turkey has recognizably acted decisively.

I allow myself to very especially congratulate the Turkish authorities on the process launched in order to provide peace and prosperity for all Turkish citizens, and have hopes that the current negotiations may lead to an agreement being found.

Mister President, I equally want to express my gratitude for Turkey’s support in Portugal’s candidacy to the Council of Human Rights for the 2015-2017 period.

Mister President,

Our responsibility lies with the strengthening of the bonds that link our countries, in an ever greater closer and fruitful cooperation and in a redoubled effort to become better acquainted. We must not forget that proximity between Peoples also relates to the mutual knowledge of their cultures and from the heritage emerging from their civilization.

This visit, I am certain, will constitute an historical marker in the relationship between Portugal and Turkey.

It is with this certainty that I ask you all to join me in a toast to the health of President Abdullah Gül and of Mrs. Hayrunnisa Gül, to the prosperity of the friendly people of Turkey and to the future of the relations between our two countries.