Representatives of some civil society organisations which joined the TRNC delegation and carried out contacts in Azerbaijan evaluated their contacts at a press conference with Prime Minister Ünal Üstel at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The head of the Women Entrepreneurs Council of the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce Yaprak Özyalçın stated that women in Azerbaijan are at the forefront in many fields.

She emphasized that their contacts will continue in terms of improving cooperation between the two countries, political, commercial, social responsibility and empowering women.

The head of the Turkish Cypriot Hoteliers Association Dimağ Çağıner stated that the TRNC was hosted as a state and said “this visit is very important for us in terms of being perceived as a state and treated as such.”

“From now on, we will continue on the road with states that accept the Turkish Cypriot people as they are, not with those who turn a blind eye. The TRNC is on the way to recognition, we felt this there as well” he said.

The President of the Cyprus Turkish Building Contractors Association Cafer Gürcafer for his part stated that during their contacts in the past, due to the TRNC not being recognised their contacts had not been fruitful despite good intentions and added that this time they saw that result-oriented work could be achieved.

“This is a very important political success that serves the existence of the Turkish Cypriot people. For this reason, I would like to thank everyone who made this possible” said Cafer.

The President of the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce Turgay Deniz pointed out that this was the first serious, official and productive visit to date.

He said that political visits should be translated into trade and stated that the visit to Azerbaijan was very productive and that commercial cooperation should be put forward and the investment climate should be improved in the visits to be carried out with Azerbaijan from now on.

The President of the Cyprus Turkish Tourism and Travel Agencies Union (KITSAB) Orhan Tolun for his part said that they held talks to improve relations and decided to establish a travel organization within the Turkic states.

The deputy chairman of the Cyprus Turkish Chamber of Industry Mustafa Ersözlü also drew attention to the importance of the visit by saying “From the moment we reached Azerbaijan, they made us feel that we were a state for the first time, which is very important for us. This motivated us more and therefore there were very productive developments in our contacts. We are sure that we will be able to sell products to Azerbaijan during our follow up visits.”

The Member of the Board of Directors of the Union of Universities İsmet Esenyel stated that they have carried out important contacts and that at the end of November, a step will be taken to establish the Azerbaijan – TRNC Universities Union.