Gul attends farewell reception held to honor Turkey's new permanent representavite to UN

In Ankara yesterday, President Abdullah Gul attended a reception hosted by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in honor of the outgoing Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ertugrul Apakan, who was appointed Turkey's new permanent representative to the UN with a government decree published in the Official Gazete in early last month. During the reception, in response to questions by reporters on the government's recently announced democratic expansion initiative for the southeastern Anatolia, Gul said Turkey, as a democratic, modern and powerful country aiming to elevate its standards, should solve its problems on its own initiative, adding that the current international conjuncture is very convenient for the solution of the problem as well. Stating that the citizens' sense of belonging to their homeland, the Republic of Turkey, and Turkey's unitary state structure should be strengthened through such efforts, Gul said, "Our unity and solidarity are above everything else." In this effort, Turkey should act with the self confidence of a civilized, democratic and powerful country, and solve its problems on its own initiative, thus ruling out any possibility of outside intervention in and exploitation of the issue, Gul said. He also said he can meet again with opposition leaders, who have adopted a hard-line stance on the government's democratic expansion initiative, to exchange views on the issue, if necessary, adding that the initiative would also be taken up during the tomorrow's National Security Council (MKG) meeting. Permanent representation to the UN headquarters is currently undertaken by Ambassador Baki Ilkin, who has passed the mandatory age of retirement. The new permanent representative, Apakan, previously served as Turkey's ambassador to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and had held the post of undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry since December 2006. Apakan is expected to take over the post from Ilkin before the new term meetings of the UN begin in early next month.