Tuesday, 22 March 2016, the President of Romania, Mr Klaus Iohannis visited the church of “Saint Martyr Paraskevi” in Istanbul, Turkey.
The President of Romania and the delegation accompanying him were met by His Eminence Gennadios of Sassima and by parish priest Sergiu-Marcel Vlad in the church of “Saint Martyr Paraskevi”, Brâncoveanu foundation and the place of worship where the Romanians in Istanbul have prayed since 2004.
Rev. Fr. Sergiu-Marcel Vlad addressed welcomed them and presented the history of the church. Then, His Excellency Mr Klaus Iohannis thanked for the warm reception and transmitted the Ecumenical Patriarchate his thanks for having offered this church for religious services to the Romanians.
His Eminence Gennadios, in his turn, on behalf of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, conveyed a welcome word and emphasised the good relations between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Romanian Patriarchate – Rev. Fr. Sergiu Vlad mentioned.
In the end of the visit, the President of Romania received a replica of the icon of the Mother of God with Infant Jesus – preserved in the Patriarchal Cathedral – as a present on behalf of the parish priest.
During this visit, at 17.00 hours, the President of Romania met part of the members of the Romanian diaspora in Istanbul, at Çirağan Palace Hotel Kempinskia.
The delegation of the president consisted of Mr Lazăr Comănescu, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Radu Onofrei, Romanian Ambassador to Turkey, Mr Iusein Ibram, member of the Romanian Parliament, Mr Varol Amet, member of the Romanian Parliament, and several Presidential Counsellors.
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Speech delivered by the President of Romania, Mr Klaus Iohannis, at the meeting with the representatives of the Romanian community in Istanbul (source: presidency.ro):
Dear Minister,
Members of the Parliament,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good afternoon! I am very glad to see you here, on the occasion of this meeting. The Romanian community of Istanbul is the first assembly that I meet during this state visit and it is not by accident. I did want to meet you. Today, I begin an official visit to Turkey, when I will meet, besides you, President Erdoğan, Prime Minister Davutoğlu, the President of the Great National Assembly, and other officials of Turkey. It is a very important visit for us, and I hope for our Turkish partners too. As you probably know, Romania and Turkey have a strategic partnership and we wish to keep on developing this partnership.
Part of this special relationship between Romania and Turkey is you, the Romanians who decided, for various reasons, to live here, in Istanbul, or anywhere else in Turkey. It is a very good thing for Romania to have you, just as it is a very good thing for us to have a minority which can be considered the minority which represents Turkey or the Turkish and Turkish-Tatar minorities, which create something quite special. They create a relationship, a bridge between the two countries. This bridge is not a new one. There have been very good relations between our two countries for quite a long time, relations present at institutional and personal levels, as well as in the economical field, and in the cultural one too. All this makes us think that Romania and Turkey can keep on building together many good things together.
Unfortunately, as we all know, today is a black day for the European Union. Brussels was under a terrorist attack, the European Union was under terrorist attack and, unfortunately, Turkey too was under a terrorist attack.
All these show us that terrorism is present everywhere in civilization. Unfortunately, all these events show us that the issues of the world are far from being resolved, but wherever we can intervene, with friendship among countries, with solidarity among us, we have a good chance to resolve these issues.
Solidarity may be the best word for this state of things and I think that the whole world was grieved, impressed, when we had those attacks in Istanbul, Ankara, in Paris and today, unfortunately, in Brussels. We must oppose these attacks by our desire of peace, our desire of collaboration, our solidarity to resolve the great issues we are faced with in the region we are living too, Romanians and Turks.
There are issues very well known, it is, certainly, the issue of terrorism, the issue of migration, the issue of the war in Syria, and many other issues which, unfortunately draw our attention more than we would have liked them to do it.
I do not want to finish in a pessimist tone. I am completely confident that we shall overcome, together with our partners that we shall succeed in resolving these issues, and if we look again at the most adjoining issues between Romania and Turkey, I see you as our ambassadors, and I thank you very much for that.
Photo: presidency.ro
