OCT 29, 2023 is a very special day for the Turkish people as it marks the 100th anniversary of our republic.
A century ago, on Oct 29, 1923, the Turkish Republic was proclaimed by the Grand National Assembly of Turkiye and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was elected as the first president.
Today, as an ambassador representing Turkiye in the friendly country of Malaysia, I feel the deepest joy and excitement for being able to celebrate this happy day with our Malaysian brothers.
Here, I would like to quote from the speech Ataturk delivered 90 years ago to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the republic.
"We have accomplished many and great tasks in a short time. The greatest of these is the Turkish Republic, the basis of which is the Turkish valiancy and the great Turkish culture.
"We owe this success to the determined forward march of the Turkish nation, together with her precious army.
"However, we can never consider what we have achieved to be sufficient, because we must, and are determined to, accomplish even more and greater tasks."
These wise words of a great leader remain relevant today. Under the leadership of our president, we continue to work in order to "accomplish even more and greater tasks".
We pursue our struggle to elevate the Republic of Turkiye, which was founded with heavy sacrifices 100 years ago, "above the level of contemporary civilisations".
Turkiye, whose struggle for independence was a beacon of inspiration to the oppressed people a century ago, continues to appeal to hearts and minds by stating that "the world is bigger than five".
As the republic enters its second century, we are proud of its achievements and confident of its future.
Another future that we are confident of is the ever expanding Turkiye-Malaysia bilateral relations.
This year our republic turns 100. Next year, we will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between Turkiye and Malaysia.
I would like to add that as Turkish and Malaysian nations, we didn't meet in the 1960s, our brotherhood has a longer history dating back to the relations between the Ottoman Empire and the Melaka, and later the Johor sultanates.
However, in the past decade bilateral relations strengthened tremendously. In 2014, we elevated our relations to the "strategic" level. In 2022, relations were further promoted to the level of "comprehensive strategic partnership".
Today, the distance between Turkiye and Malaysia is much closer than what it seems on Google maps.
In terms of cooperation and people-to-people contacts, we are like neighbours.
High-level contacts are frequent. Their Majesties visited Turkiye in 2022. In July, the Turkish foreign minister visited Penang.
In September, our president and the Malaysian prime minister met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly and released a joint declaration on the rise of Islamophobia.
Furthermore, Malaysia is our biggest trade partner among Asean members. Trade volume increased sharply from US$3.5 billion in 2021 to US$4.7 billion in 2022.
This is a 35 per cent increase. Turkish and Malaysian businesses have enjoyed a free-trade agreement since 2015.
We recently expanded the scope of this free-trade agreement to include trade in services, investments and e-commerce.
For people-to-people contacts, the number of visitors from Malaysia has reached the pre-pandemic level by exceeding 50,000 in the first six months of 2023.
In addition, hundreds of Malaysians are learning Turkish at the Yunus Emre Turkish Cultural Centre in KL or in universities in Malaysia.
Turkiye and Malaysia cooperate in various sectors, ranging from aerospace to construction business, from defence industry to basic commodity trade.
We have considerable investments here in Malaysia and there are significant Malaysian investments in Turkiye.
Yet we believe that this is not enough.
We believe Turkish-Malaysian cooperation should deepen and develop for the benefit and welfare of our nations.
Based on the comprehensive strategic partnership between our countries, we are keen to open up new pathways in our cooperation.
With these thoughts, I would like to wish a Happy Republic Day to Turkish citizens living in Malaysia and thank Malaysian friends who celebrate this special day with us.
The writer is Turkiye ambassador to Malaysia
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times