CAIRO - After three and a half years of dedicated work in Egypt, the Turkish Ambassador, Huseyin Avni Botsali, is preparing to end his term. "I consider myself and my family very fortunate for numerous reasons. At the top is the level of relations between the two countries," he satisfactorily told The Egyptian Gazette in an interview. During his term from December 2009 to July 2013, Turkish-Egyptian relations recorded remarkable progress in every field. The volume of trade rose from 2.9 billion to over $5 billion. The Turkish President visited Egypt three times, also there have been two presidential visits from Egypt to Turkey between 2009 and 2012. Moreover, after an interval of 15 years, the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, visited Egypt twice in 2011 and 2012. Nearly 50 new agreements have been signed to promote multi-faceted co-operation between the two countries in every field. With other agreements already in force, the number of friendly co-operation agreements has reached 100. RoRo Shipping line has been established between Turkish and Egyptian ports. Now commercial trucks are bringing commodities by sea and are continuing their trip via Egypt into third countries, i.e. Saudi Arabia and Jordan. There is great potential to expand this RoRo traffic. It is expected that after a few years this line will gain precedence and turn into an important bridge in North-South trade between Euro-Asia and Africa. "We facilitated visa procedures. Now Egyptian citizens can apply and obtain single entry visas through the E-Consulate by using their computers without even having to come to the embassy. People who have OECD or Schengen Visas can apply for Turkish single entry visas at Istanbul Airport," the ambassador said. In addition to countless exhibitions, concerts, folkloric shows visiting both countries from each side, Turkish and Egyptian television agencies have started working together. "We not only advised our investors to continue promoting Egypt, but also the Turkish government opened a credit line of $2 billion to Egypt. Half of this has already been disbursed. The remaining one billion dollars will be used to finance new projects to help revive and re-dinamise the Egyptian economy," he added. Actually his wife, Inci Botsali, played a great role helping her husband. "Wherever and whenever I was not able to catch an important event or l had more than one obligation at a given time, my wife took over and attended receptions, social and cultural events. It paid back dearly," Ambassador Huseyin said with a smile. He explained that his residence was opened for Egyptians from all walks of life. "You can not imagine what a great feeling that was. Egyptians gave us the message that they consider us part of their family. They trust us, and they respect us. This is a priceless gift. "Wealth can not buy genuine love and respect. We were privileged that Egyptian people extended their unprecedented friendship and love towards us. And we reciprocated by turning our home into an Egypt House." Regarding the political climate, the ambassador said, "Egyptians started one of the last and maybe most important peaceful revolutions of the 21st century. We feel Egypt has changed all of us. We became different people. The revolution and following events educated us. We believe in Egypt's future and Egyptian people's ability to build a unified position to achieve the goals of Tahrir revolution; Freedom, dignity, justice and foster opportunity to revive its glorious civilisational tradition." The diplomat said that he and his family would visit Egypt more and more just for one reason. "We drank from the waters of the Nile. It means we shall return and revisit Egypt."
